In a small town not far from where I live in Connecticut, three Brooklyn town highway employees have now been caught up in a stolen diesel fuel scam. The three employees, including the town’s highway department director, claim they didn’t know they were buying stolen fuel, according to the Norwich Bulletin.

“We never had any clue,” Tom Rukstela, the highway director, said.

Police allege the three purchased the fuel for $2 a gallon for home use, about half of what it was selling for at the time, because they were told it was used fuel taken from tanks that were removed from the ground. Turns out the fuel had been stolen from a company in Thompson, CT. Three different men have been arrested and charged with that theft.

Rukstela reportedly questioned why the town employees were being charged. “Why all of a sudden are they picking on people who were purchasing it without the knowledge of it being stolen?” he asked.

The trio face up to five years in year in jail if convicted.

Here’s a golden rule to follow: If a deal seems too good to be true, do your due diligence. Check it out. Chances are, it probably is too good to be true. And if a guy just shows up at your door and wants to sell you diesel fuel, just say no.