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Bus driver charged in gasoline theft

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A 46-year-old Palmetto Breeze bus driver was arrested Friday after a sheriff's deputy caught him filling his personal Ford Taurus at the Beaufort County gasoline station, according to a Beaufort County Sheriff's Office report.

The station, located at 25 Benton Field Road in Bluffton, is reserved for county vehicles and those who pay for the right to use it, such as Lowcountry Regional Transportation Authority's Palmetto Breeze buses.

The deputy pulled into the county station just after midnight Friday, when he noticed a man filling up a blue Ford Taurus. As soon as he pulled up, the man returned the fuel nozzle to the pump.

When the deputy asked what he was doing, the man said that he was an LRTA employee and that he was fueling an LRTA van parked nearby.

When the deputy asked who the Taurus belonged to, the man replied, "the vehicle belongs here."

The man, a Savannah resident, later admitted he pumped "just a couple of gallons" of county gasoline into his personal vehicle, but that he would tell his employer what he had done in the morning, the report said.

The deputy estimated the man pumped about eight gallons of gasoline, worth $24, into the tank before being caught.

The Taurus was towed.

Rochelle Ferguson, LRTA's executive director, said the man -- who had been working for Palmetto Breeze for less than a month --was fired. She said authorities are investigating if the man is responsible for any other gasoline thefts at the

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