Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SOUTH OGDEN — A victim of gas siphoning has decided to look on the brighter side of his misfortune, and instead of lashing out, is choosing to give back to the community.
Jarad Winterton, 35, is a realtor in the South Ogden area. Part of his business includes loaning large box vans to clients who are moving.
In November, thieves cut the gas lines on the box trucks and siphoned the gas. At the time, Winterton was hosting a charity event that gave away 97 turkeys and $2,000 worth of produce.
“When (the client) went to fill it up with gas, the gas line had been cut on the white box van,” Winterton said. “Pretty frustrated, I brought it over to the local tire shop right next door and had them get working on it.”
Winterton and a friend went to make sure that the other box vans were functioning properly that same night, and everything seemed OK. But the next day, another gas line on a box van had been cut.
“They had siphoned about 55 gallons worth of gas out,” Winterton said. “The story on that was that it was frustrating because I feel like I do a lot to give back to others. It was kind of disappointing and frustrating when that happened.”
Instead of taking a negative stance on the event, Winterton decided to do something positive.
“I totaled up all of the receipts on what I was spending on the box vans," he said. “It cost me about $648 to get them back up to snuff as far as parts, labor and replacement for gas.”
#fb_embed
Winterton decided to purchase $650 worth of gas gift cards and gave them away randomly via his Facebook page.
“I wanted to give back, but I also know that there’s a lot of negativity in the world today, and I wanted people to look at a crappy situation and look at it differently,” he said. “When someone has a bad day, they can either turn it around and make it a better day and that’s what I chose to do instead of constantly getting down about it.”
Related Story:
