Thief bursts into flames while trying to steal gas in Utah

He really paid a high price for gas.

A Utah thief desperate to get ever-pricier gas was caught on camera drilling into a truck’s tank — then partially bursting into flames.

Shocking footage obtained by KSL TV first showed a white pickup pulling up next to a truck in the parking lot of — ironically — a fire protection company.

“The guy tried to siphon gas out of it and he wasn’t getting the siphon to work,” fed-up Summit Fire and Protection branch manager Travis Mills told the outlet.

“So he decided to drill the gas tank … and that’s when he caught on fire,” he said of the Saturday morning blaze.

The dramatic footage showed the unidentified thief under the rear of the truck — then suddenly jumping up and running away with his T-shirt ablaze.

He then fell to the floor and rolled across the parking lot, before his accomplice in the pickup helped him to get back in.

It was not clear how injured the thief was, nor if he was ever identified or found. However, Mills stressed that the raider was lucky the truck was close to empty at the time.

“If there were more gas in it than a gallon, this thing would have absolutely turned into a bomb,” the manager told KSL.

“It’s sad because times are tough for a lot of people, but it’s not worth the $5 that he would have saved for the injury that the guy sustained.”

Mills said the same truck had already had its catalytic converter stolen — and had previously been targeted by gas thieves, forcing them to upgrade to a $30,000 security system that caught the thief in the act.

A Salt Lake City Fire Marshall division chief, Tony Allred, said the crime was part of an alarming trend fueled by gas prices soaring to record highs.

“Unfortunately, given the gas prices in the valley and nationwide, we are seeing an increase in gas theft,” Allred told the outlet.

Still, he stressed that “drilling into a tank is extraordinarily dangerous.”

“It’s just extraordinarily dangerous for the person stealing the gas for a very low return,” Allred said of the crazy, caught-on-camera crime.