(September 23, 2008)

REFUGIO--Refugio County investigators uncovered an oil field theft ring involving more than $100,000. Already, two people are arrested and authorities hope to put more people behind bars.

Investigators started looking into some missing oil field equipment in Refugio County. Once they started digging into the case a few weeks ago, they learned about a criminal operation.

Authorities found about $150,000 worth of stolen oil field equipment inside of 58-year-old Arnulfo Cardona's garage in Refugio County about two weeks ago.

"It's very big," said Deputy Gary Wright of the Refugio County Sheriff's Department. "This much equipment in one man's garage who doesn't actually have a job so to speak, accumulating this stuff in his garage is astronomical."

Investigators said the equipment includes valves, meters and pumps used for oil and gas production. They said Bruce Perez, 30, was taking this stuff from his job in Refugio County and selling it to Cardona. He then sold it to businesses in Bee, Goliad and Nueces county.

"A lot of this stuff was being taken from inventory," said Refugio County Sheriff Earl Petropoulos. "A lot of the valves and stuff were being double ordered by a particular employee. He would use one piece of the equipment and sell the other piece."

While this inventory may not look expensive, the sheriff's said it is.

"The reason this is so expensive is because it's specialty stuff," Sheriff Petropoulos said. "It's not stuff you can go down to the hardware store and buy. It's specialty items for oil and gas production."

Some of these valves are worth about $40,000 and investigators said the criminals were selling it for less than half that price. So getting these men off the streets and behind bars is a big thing for these oil companies in Refugio County.

"Right now, they're losing money having to buy more equipment and, subsequently, they're saving money by us solving this case." Wright said, who is the lead investigator. 

Authorities said the case isn't over and more people may soon get arrested.

--Manuel De La Rosa, Area 3 News, mdelarosa@kiiitv.com