'It was very disheartening': Tanks drilled, gas stolen from Winnipeg daycare's vans

Amid soaring gas prices in Winnipeg, one daycare centre fears gas theft may be on the rise after someone syphoned gas from its vehicles by drilling holes in the gas tanks.

When Carol Jones, the executive director at Little People’s Place daycare centre, arrived at work on Monday, she smelled gas. That is when she and her staff discovered that three of the daycare vans had been syphoned.

"We did try to drive them and discovered that there was gas pouring out of the bottom of them all," she said, adding the vans had not only been syphoned. She said holes had been drilled into the tanks to empty them of gas.

"It was very disheartening and extremely frustrating," she said. "After being through these past two years of crisis upon crisis for families and for us, this is a hard blow that somebody would do something like this."

Gas prices in Winnipeg have reached record highs in the past week, recently hitting 189.9 cents per litre at some gas stations.

The Winnipeg Police Service (WPS) confirmed it has received reports of this kind of gas theft, including the report of the theft at the Little People’s Place daycare.

"This is potentially a very dangerous endeavour as it appears the gas tanks are being breached by either a hole being punched or the use of a power tool to access the gas," Const. Dani McKinnon, a WPS public information officer, told CTV News in an email.

Jones estimates the thieves made off with about $700 in gas, not to mention the damages caused to the vehicles. She said the daycare uses the vans to take more than 80 children to eight different schools in the community.

"The problem is that getting these fix could take weeks, and of course, that's going to be a nightmare for our families and a nightmare for us, because that affects our income," she said.

"I think more and more of this is going to be happening, and that's a big concern for us because even once we get it fixed, how would you stop it from happening again?"

Jones said she is concerned, with the rising gas prices, other daycare centres may be targeted. She is calling on the community to keep an eye out and prevent this kind of theft from happening again.

-With files from CTV's Mason DePatie