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Wednesday, April 4, 2018

DPW EMPLOYEE ARRESTED ON THEFT CHARGES

Hartford City Employee Tyler Walker

During the month of March 2018, City of Hartford Department of Public Works Supervisors requested assistance from the Hartford Police Department Intelligence Division/C4 with a possible theft of city fuel by a Public Works employee. The employee, identified as Tyler Walker, had filled up a city owned portable refueling truck with close to 100 gallons of city gas on several occasions. The purpose of this vehicle is to refuel city vehicles in the field, but the amount drawn from the city pumps was inconsistent with current refueling needs. DPW supervisors who track fuel amounts noticed this issue, suspected possible theft, and brought it to HPD.
The city refueling truck (Truck #115) is equipped an Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) and a retroactive search of the AVL data throughout March showed that it made several out of town trips and several trips to the secluded city owned rail lot behind the Xfinity Amphitheater on New Rd. The HPD Intelligence Division deployed a covert portable security camera in the area of the rail lot. On the night of March 31st the refueling truck was seen meeting up with a tractor trailer and appeared to refuel the privately owned (non-city) vehicle.

An operation was planned for the night of Tuesday April 3, 2018. HPD Detectives observed Walker towards the start of his shift (3pm-11pm) filling the refueling truck to capacity at the city gas pumps. Several hours later Walker was observed, through surveillance, traveling to East Hartford where he pulled into a garage bay at 91 Charles Street. Detectives then saw the refueling truck pull out of the garage and begin to refuel a privately owned flatbed (Gardner Transportation). A take down ensued and Walker, along with two co-conspirators, were safely taken into custody. DPW Supervisor were notified and responded. During a debrief of the accused suspects at 50 Jennings Road, Walker admitted to selling the gas at a price of $150.00 for 100 Gallons and stated he had done it "several" times since February at  several locations (East Hartford, and the Rail lot), all for personal profit. Walker and his co-conspirators were all arrested for Conspiracy to Commit Larceny in the Second Degree (Defrauding a Public Community), a Class C Felony.

The refueling truck was returned to 40 Jennings Road and the Gardner Transportation flatbed truck was towed incidental to the arrest.
Future arrest warrants pending for previous thefts and transactions.

“This morning we fired a of City of Hartford, Department of Public Works employee for theft of city property. While this is unfortunate, I am proud of our DPW supervision for using established protocols and quickly noticing the fuel deficit. Our DPW supervisors contacted HPD immediately and assisted as needed in the investigation. Thankfully we’ve established asset protection on many levels through the use of technology. With our strong partnership with HPD, we were able to seamlessly share that technology to assist HPD C4 detectives. “ Chief Reginald Freeman (Acting Director of DPW)