Peachtree City police officers

on routine patrol one night in late January happened upon a man hunched

over in the shadows beside the city's vehicle refueling station,

inside the locked gates of the Public Works compound on Kelly Drive.

The man appeared to be stealing

gasoline, police observed, pumping it into a fuel can sitting on the ground.

When the suspect saw the officers, he abandoned the gas can and took off

on foot, scaling a fence and escaping into the night, officials say.

But the alleged gasoline thief

wasn't an outsider, nor a novice at finding his way around the maintenance

yard. In fact, police believe he was a former employee, one of dozens

who reportedly knew not only how to slip in and out of city facilities

undetected at all hours, but how to take advantage of Public Works'

near-non-existent security measures and rip off city taxpayers for much

more than an occasional gallon of gasoline.

During the followup investigation

in the days afterward, what was initially believed to be a simple case

of gasoline theft mushroomed into a full-scale investigation of alleged

corruption, misconduct and criminal activity involving the top managers

in the city's Public Works division, Police Chief James Murray said.

Working in top-secret and around

the clock, with the blessings of Peachtree City's mayor, council

and city manager, the police department launched an intense internal investigation

in the first days of February, Murray said, conducting private one-on-one

interviews with scores of city employees, including every one in the Public

Works Department.

Assured they would not face

retribution if they told the truth, many city workers confessed to being

witness to years of misappropriated funds and the theft of city property

and equipment.

Last Friday, former Public

Works Director Bobby Thompson and former Fleet Manager Tony Wood were

arrested and formally charged in connection with the case. Both men had

resigned one week earlier as the charges against them unfolded.

Thompson, 43 of Zebulon in

Pike County, and Wood, 42, of Peachtree City, were arraigned Friday afternoon

in Fayette County Magistrate Court just as their arrests were announced

in a press conference at police headquarters.

Both men are charged with theft

statements and concealing facts of a political subdivision (also a felony).

Thompson's bond was set at $10,000, while Wood's was set at

$15,000.

Among the charges, the two

are alleged to have bilked Peachtree City out of an untold amount of money

on the city payroll at Thompson's Pike County home.

That employee, Cameron Bolden,

has also resigned his city-paid position but was not charged in the case,

said City Manager Bernard McMullen.

According to the police investigation,

Thompson and Wood falsified Bolden's timecard so it would indicate

he was working for the city, when in fact Bolden was working at Thompson's

home, city officials say.

In addition to Bolden, three

more Public Works employees have also resigned, said Chief Murray, but

won't face charges because they agreed to cooperate with police.

They are Paul Justus, a mechanic;

Chris Bowden, a Public Works superintendent; and Curtis Benson, the department's

support services manager.

According to Murray, it had

become the accepted culture within the public works department to fill

up private gas tanks, take tools and equipment and order parts and inventory

for private use on the city's accounts, a practice that Mayor Steve

Brown declared "would not be tolerated."

Murray said the investigation

is ongoing, but no further arrests are expected at this time.

"We think we've got

the top of it with these six resignations, and that we're really

on the road to putting an end to this," the chief said.

In a prepared statement read

at Friday's press conference, Brown lauded Murray's department

for doing an "excellent job with this investigation."

"Their hard work is appreciated,"

Brown said.

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