HARRIS COUNTY, Texas – A Harris County employee has been arrested for allegedly charging more than $29,000 to a county fuel card.
Investigators say Favyon Darrell Coleman used the card to fill up other people's cars. In exchange, they paid him in cash that he kept.
"I noticed a gentleman holding a nozzle in his hand after a car left," said a man who was working nearby the Chevron Star Stop on Fondren at West Bellfort.
The man didn't want to be identified, but he said he watched the guy fill up several more cars.
"There was three or four cars of all different makes and models from Porsches to a van to an Impala," he said.
He jotted down the license plate number of the guy manning the pump and it led investigators back to Coleman, an employee at the Harris County Facilities Property Management. Court records reveal Coleman, 25, told investigators he had fallen on hard times.
Coleman had access to the credit card through his job, but he didn't just use it once or twice; he used it several times. A customer at the Chevron told Local 2 that Coleman approached her in July at the station, asking to fill up her car using the card.
"Did it seem shady to you?" Local 2 asked her.
"Yes, it did. It did because I don't know who actually comes up to people at a gas station and asks if they want to use a card," she said.
But plenty of people did take him up on the offer. Court records show Coleman called family, friends, even his barber, to come fill up on the taxpayer's dime.
"Hopefully this will open up somebody's eyes," said the employee who first noticed the suspicious activity. "A little auditing, a little self-checking going on. This probably could be fixed very simply."
Coleman is charged with theft by a public servant and organized criminal activity. We didn't immediately see any other criminal history for him in Harris County.