He used his county gas card to fill up his own car, cops say. He’s been charged
Dani Toranzo, a maintenance supervisor for Miami-Dade’s Parks and Recreation Department, used a plastic fuel container to fill up his 2005 Scion, police say. The problem: He used his county issued gas card to get the five gallons valued at $11.25.
And police say this wasn’t the first time he did that.
On Sunday, the 43-year-old who has worked for the county since 2016, was arrested and charged with grand theft and organized scheme to defraud. He is stationed at Amelia Earhart Park in Hialeah.
An officer wrote in an arrest report that he spotted Toranzo “pouring five gallons of unleaded gasoline that had been stored inside a plastic fuel container into the gas tank of a 2005 Toyota Scion.”
The officer said the gas came from the county’s fueling station, which can only be used to fill county vehicles and equipment.
Toranzo was then taken into custody. Investigators later learned that were 17 other times that Toranzo used his county-issued gas card to fill up containers he later used to fill up his personal car. Those transactions added up to $321.15, according to the arrest report.
Police say Toranzo told officers he stole the gas over a four-month period.
“Mr. Toranzo stated he would fuel his vehicle at least twice a week, using two five-gallon fuel containers kept in his work shed,” the officer wrote in the report.
This is not the first time a county employee was arrested for stealing gas.
In 2015, a fancy car-loving Miami-Dade police sergeant was accused of stealing county gas to fill up his wife’s BMW.
Emil Van Lugo, 45, denied the charges, but was later convicted of stealing $277 in gas and was sentenced to three years’ probation.
This story was originally published July 19, 2019 at 6:45 PM.
