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Amherst County firefighter accused of stealing gas

By Dave Thompson

Published: July 3, 2008

An Amherst County firefighter accused of using a fire station account to purchase gas for his personal vehicle is facing felony charges, according to authorities.

Amherst County Sheriff Jimmy Ayers said John Wayne Eggleston Jr. was arrested and charged with grand larceny on June 25.

Ayers did not specify how long the alleged crimes were going on, but said it was happening for “a pretty long time.”

Eggleston was with the Monelison Volunteer Fire Department at the time of the alleged incidents.

The matter was brought to Ayers’ attention about eight weeks ago, he said, when the president of the Monelison Volunteer Fire Department and Rescue Squad Inc., notified the sheriff’s office about the suspected activities.

From there, Ayers said, Amherst County investigators picked up the case, eventually charging Eggleston.

Eggleston turned himself in after an investigator notified him of the charge by phone.

He was released from the Amherst County Jail on a personal recognizance bond.

Reader Reactions

Posted by ( damalama ) on July 08, 2008 at 12:44 am

what is going on with this freedom guy, most of his comments are ramblings, and can’t really be understood. you take about the topic, and then bang you start talking about hating bush, the govt., taxes, and giving food to dying people in africa. are you actually comparing a firefighter stealing gas from tax payers, because he didn’t want to pay for it himself and thought he wouldn’t get caught using his gas card at county pumps, because he is an idiot, is comparable to the truely needy of third-world countries? and if you truly knew the type of “men” on the monelison volunteer fire department, i think you would change your opinion of thinking they are great people. this is a really needed call for PROFESSIONAL firefighters, that way atlease a standard can be set in the form of a hiring process and standards that people must meet before they are hired, so hopefully some of the people who are on there now wouldn’t be there, you would be amazed at some of the things members of that department have been convicted of and accused of but later had charges dropped. not to mention it would rid the area of red-white light cars, and giant trucks with red light bars on them flying around the town thinking it gives them the right to speed, i mean really that really shows that those type of people SHOULD NOT be volunteering placing a light bar on top of your own car, no red flags are raised?!?! really?!? i know our police probably turn a blind eye to it because of the who “we work together” mentality, but one day they are going to hurt someone blowing through stop signs, lights, and excessive speeding. just take the example of the volunteer that came flying out of his drive way in campbell not to long ago and slammed into a car just traveling down the road. that story for some reason was never picked up be the media, even though it was the talk of the town for awhile. there is a great deal of these people that are more of a danger to the community than they are for good.

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Posted by ( Cosmo Wafflefoot ) on July 07, 2008 at 3:28 pm

(freedom)? It does not appear, from your writing ability, that you ever went to school at all. Why do you insist upon showing that off? A thief is a thief. I couldn’t care less what he/she does in their spare time. I don’t want them on my property for any reason. If, as you hint, you are in bad economic shape, perhaps you should have paid more attention when you had the opportunity.

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Posted by ( crispy daisy ) on July 07, 2008 at 1:58 pm

freedom, I am a volunteer myself, and I would never think of stealing from the organization, no matter how hard up I might be. You don’t know any of the circumstances regarding the gas thefts, how long they had been going on (the article says “a pretty long time"), or how much they amounted to. I do know that he was stealing either from donors or taxpayers.

I won’t argue with you that services like fire and EMT should be paid. In this case, though, it’s a volunteer squad and the man knew what being a volunteer entailed. If you allow him to take all the gas he wants for his personal use, then you have to allow it for all of the other volunteers. That brings me back to my original question: Who pays for it?

Since I don’t know any more about the circumstances than you do, I don’t know if he deserves jail time, or how much, but he should, at the very least, reimburse the value of the fuel he stole.

The rest of your post, again, nauseates me, and is completely irrelevant to this story.

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Posted by ( crispy daisy ) on July 07, 2008 at 9:52 am

freedom, who exactly is supposed to give volunteers gas vouchers and cover the wear and tear on their personal vehicles? Volunteer organizations are funded by donations, sometimes augmented by government (taxpayer) funds. This person was taking gas for use in his personal vehicle. Do you think donations should pay for expenses related to all volunteers’ personal vehicles? Should the taxpayers cover it?

The whole premise of being a volunteer is that you do not receive tangible compensation for what you do. You donate your time as well as the expense needed to get you to the job. Non-profit organizations couldn’t exist if they had to pay for things like gas and vehicle maintenance for all of their volunteers. It’s difficult enough to raise the funds needed to cover necessary expenses.

As for the rest of your post, it’s just ridiculous and sickening, and has nothing to do with this story.

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Posted by ( jusbeachy ) on July 04, 2008 at 10:32 am

amazing the things people do

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