By Khalida Sarwari
A man was arrested Thursday on suspicion of stealing gas from U-Haul rental trucks in Mountain View and setting fire to the trucks in July.
Jesse Jakubik, 48, of Palo Alto, was arrested just after midnight on Thursday after an officer spotted him allegedly sneaking out of a U-Haul facility at 62 W. El Camino Real through a hole in a fence, police said.
Jakubik’s pickup truck, which was parked nearby on state Highway 237, contained four five-gallon containers filled with gas and 13 empty five-gallon containers, according to police.
Police believe the gas was stolen from U-Haul rental trucks parked at the facility after finding a rental truck that had a siphon still inserted into the gas tank.
The value of the stolen gas was estimated at about $80, according to police.
During their investigation, police found that Jakubik resembled the suspect captured by a security camera setting fire to a U-Haul truck at the same facility on July 20 that ultimately spread and burned eight trucks.
Moreover, the jacket Jakubik was wearing when he was arrested looked like the same jacket worn by the suspect who set the fire, police said.
Jakubik was booked into Santa Clara County Jail on charges of burglary, which stemmed from him allegedly going into an unlocked U-Haul storage shed without permission when he took the gas just before he set the fire, unlawfully causing the July 20th fire, prowling on private property, possession of stolen property, and violating the terms of his probation, according to police.
He was on probation for a drug-related conviction, police said.
