Missing Propane Spurs FBI Probe

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Investigation Into Missing Propane Spurs FBI Probe

One Tank Could Destroy Small Building

POSTED: 8:53 am MST November 8, 2004

DENVER -- The FBI is contacting its Joint Terrorist Task Forces in Washington and around the country after 7NEWS Investigator John Ferrugia asked federal officials about hundreds of gallons of missing liquid propane gas.

About 100 propane gas cylinders have been stolen since July and so far, none of them has been recovered, Ferrugia said. 

The missing tanks could pose a serious threat because the propane in just one of the cylinders can take down a small building. (See explosion video, left, courtesy Foley and Mansfield).

The missing tanks are not the small cylinders people use for their barbecue grills, or the kind that would be stolen for meth labs. These are larger cylinders that contain liquid propane to power forklifts or farm machinery and for other commercial purposes.

But what's disturbing is that, in a post-9/11 world, neither local law enforcement nor federal Homeland Security officials have been tracking this potential threat, Ferrugia said.

The commercial propane tanks weigh 33 pounds, contain 7.8 gallons of liquid propane, and are kept in locked cages outside many area businesses.

"I came in one morning and they were all gone. The padlock had been cut off," said Bob Fridlund, plant manager of Mountain West Printing.

He lost seven cylinders in two separate thefts. He reported the first to police, whom he said seemed unconcerned.

"I said, 'What are these people doing with these bottles? Are they going to make a bomb or something out of them?' And he just laughed at me and said he didn't know," Fridlund said.

Each gallon of liquid propane expands 274 times when released. And when mixed with air and ignited, it creates incredible explosive force as seen in this picture.

But while local police may not be concerned, the FBI is, Ferrugia said.

Agents made it clear earlier this year, when two propane trucks went missing in Texas, that the highly flammable gas could be a serious threat.

"Propane is one of the elements terrorists have been trained on so we're very concerned about that," the FBI had said during the Texas incident.

Federal authorities track large thefts, such as the one in Texas, but no one is apparently tracking many smaller thefts which could add up to an equal threat.

"My basic concern is: Why is it happening here?" said Randy Warren, operations manager with Dal-Tile Corp. in Denver.

His company has lost 28 cylinders overall -- 10 in the past six months. He has also reported the thefts to police.

"Why are they so adamant in cutting a lock, cutting chains, trying to rip the doors off or whatever it is to get to these and what are they doing with them?" Warren said.

"The past six months we have seen an increased spike in the theft going on," said Marshall Younglund, who runs the Amerigas operation in Denver.

Amerigas is the largest propane supplier in the country.

"It's called liquefied petroleum gas. The bottle releases liquid out of the bottle -- not vapor, not like your typical barbecue bottle that uses the vapor and not the liquid," said Younglund.

Cameras inside a test explosion, conducted by Western Engineering in Denver, show how each gallon of liquid propane expands 274 times when released. And when mixed with air and ignited, it creates incredible explosive force.

Younglund is concerned because his commercial customers have lost up to 48 cylinders in the Denver area since mid-summer, including some of the largest 43-pound cylinders, each containing 10 gallons of liquid propane.

And, it's not only Amerigas experiencing the thefts. Suburban Propane, another large supplier, is missing 34 cylinders in the past 90 days. And Ferrell Gas, a third national supplier in the Denver area, has lost 22 cylinders in roughly the same period.

In all, 7NEWS has calculated about 100 commercial propane cylinders missing. What is of major concern is that none of the missing tanks have been found -- even empty.

"You know this cannot be used on your barbecue, your roofer's torches, or anything like that," Younglund said.

And apparently, no law enforcement agency, including local police, has been looking for the missing tanks.

"The only time we have had correspondence with (the police) is at the time of reporting thefts of the bottles," Younglund said.

"We wouldn't know about this because it is not a federal crime," said FBI special agent Monique Kelso.

Kelso admits our 7NEWS investigation caught the agency by surprise because no local police department has alerted them to the thefts.

"This is a large amount of explosive material that has been stolen," Kelso said. "The potential threat is that these propane tanks get into the wrong hands and get into the hands of those that are willing to commit a crime on the magnitude of the Oklahoma City bombing or another terrorist attack."

As a result of 7NEWS' investigation, members of the Joint Terrorism Task Force in Denver are contacting their counterparts in every region of the country, alerting them to the potential threat and asking them to check propane thefts in their areas.

It is possible that someone is stealing these commercial tanks to heat their home or run their heavy equipment, or shipping it south, out of the country to Mexico, Ferrugia said. But regardless of whether this is a terrorist issue, no one is connecting the dots and no one is tracking it.

If you see a stack of the cylinders anywhere you believe they shouldn't be, call the FBI office in Denver at (303) 629-7171.

It may be serious, it may not be, but federal authorities would be a lot more comfortable if they knew where these cylinders were going.

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/3899300/detail.html

Each gallon of liquid propane expands 274 times when released. And when mixed with air and ignited, it creates incredible explosive force as seen in this picture.