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)