HIGH POINT, N.C. — High Point Police identified one suspect involved with a gas station robbery at Bizzy Bee Convenience Store on March 14. Police said a group of suspects stole about 400 gallons of gas worth more than $1400.
Surveillance video showed a suspect using an electronic device to bypass the gas pump computer system, so it would release gas continuously. Police said that person is 28-year-old Khalif Wells from Newberry, S.C.
The police department issued warrants for felonious larceny with full extradition from South Carolina, Virginia, and Tennessee.
Wells is also wanted in Pennsylvania for unrelated charges of probation violation.
Police are still looking for the other suspects involved. They haven't identified them yet.
"I was relieved for a minute it's not going to happen to anybody else, basically that's the main thing," Bizzy Bee owner Hardik Patel said.
Police said they got a call around 11:10 p.m. about a suspicious vehicle at the gas station. They said a witness reported seeing a gold Hyundai Sonata occupied by one man and another man standing outside the car. The store's owner told WFMY News 2 the men were there for about 45 minutes.
"I got a call from the police department a little after 11 saying that there was something going on with your pumps, and by the time we got here and see, police were here already; about three cops, and when we looked on the camera we see about 45 minutes, about 15 to 20 cars in and out and pumping gas," Patel said.
Ron Pierce, a cyber security expert with Trinity Solutions, Inc., explained how this could happen.
"Whoever this was, they knew something about those gas pumps. They either knew how to go in and program or reset them to factory, but they knew a way to say, forget what you know and do what I tell you to do," Pierce said.
Patel said he warned other gas stations in the area after the incident.
Anyone with information can call High Point police.