GP Police Arrested Man for Siphoning Gas from Minivan at Veterans Clinic
Grants Pass Police arrested a man yesterday for damaging a government vehicle by drilling a hole in the gas tank to steal fuel for his own vehicle.
The Police Department reports officers responded to a vandalism incident at the Grants Pass Veterans Administration Clinic on Williams Highway on Thursday at 12:22 p.m..
Police said they received a citizen report that a male subject later identified as 45-year-old John Joseph Dewitt siphoned gas from a Ford Equinox minivan at the facility and the caller had video surveillance of the incident. The suspect vehicle was described as a white 2000 Dodge Ram 1500 pickup with a blue canopy.
Officers tracked down the suspect vehicle heading into Grants Pass on Redwood Highway and stopped it near the South Y intersection. The vehicle was involved in multiple prior criminal incidents in the Cave Junction area. It was impounded.
Dewitt was contacted and admitted to the crime. He was lodged at the Josephine County Jail for Felony 1st-Degree Criminal Mischief, Unlawful Entry into a Motor Vehicle and 3rd-Degree Theft. He was being held without bail.
Posted on 3/28/25 10:53AM by Sam Marsh
