Avid hiker Matthew Johnson was enjoying the beautiful scenery along Pagat trail on Mangilao backroad early Saturday morning when he got word of a funky smell that would ruin his day. 

“We heard halfway during our trail there was a big smell of gas from the parking area up on the road. So we hurried back and sure enough found my gas tank had been drilled,” said Johnson. 

Car vandals had punctured a hole in his gas tank, leaving behind a puddle of gas underneath his car. 

Johnson added, “I lost about 20 gallons of gas all over the ground and I assume the criminals got away with some as well.”

He wasn’t the only victim as another resident fell victim just a thousand steps down the road. 

“They actually arrived during the crime taking place. There was gas coming out of the gas tank and they had to use their fingers to stop the flow while they were on the phone with the police to file a report,” said Johnson. 

The criminals left behind a detergent bottle used to store the stolen gas. 

Another victim at Ague Cove had their gas tank resembling swiss cheese and another, Johnson believes, even caught on fire. 

It's why he’s spreading the word. 

He said, “We’re on a huge heat warning right now, extreme fire warnings that GFD has put out. So all it's going to take is a small spark and we could actually lose a lot of the natural area that you see behind [me].”

A word of advice to hikers, make sure your car is not alone on the side of the road as Johnson said there’s power in numbers. 

“Try to go in a larger group with more than one car so that they get a bit scared about it,” he said. 

Meantime, Johnson said towing his car and patching the hole will cost him upwards a thousand dollars but that’s the least of his worries. 

He shared, “This parking area sits above an aquifer so anything that gets on the ground is going to run off into the water supply and cause environmental concerns.”

It's a consequence not worth a few dollars of stolen gas.