A Jefferson City man has been placed on probation in connection with several gasoline theft cases earlier this year.
Christopher McCombs, 35, pleaded guilty during a hearing before Cole County Presiding Judge Pat Joyce to two counts of receiving stolen property and five counts of first-degree property damage, all felonies. For those, McCombs was placed on five years of supervised probation.
McCombs also pleaded guilty to three counts of misdemeanor second-degree property damage. For those, he was placed on two years of unsupervised probation.
The incidents occurred in mid-July, according to a Cole County Sheriff's Department probable cause statement. Authorities said gas tanks had been punctured in the Apache Flats area, as well as at Enterprise Rental Car on Missouri Boulevard in Jefferson City.
Five vehicles in the Apache Flats area eventually were found to have had their gas tanks punctured, along with vehicles at Enterprise. An accomplice of McCombs claimed he had committed the actions on behalf of McCombs, using a screwdriver and hammer to puncture the tanks.
As they were investigating the gasoline thefts, authorities gathered information that led them to discover McCombs had stolen a tiller from the lot of House of Bargains in Apache Flats and kept it in a storage unit on Monticello Road. Authorities also reportedly found an ATV that had been stolen out of Laclede County inside the storage unit.