An offer to knock 60 cents off the price of propane, led to the arrest of a Golden Gate man for stealing gas from his employer and selling it for cash while shorting other customers who paid full price.

Lazaro Albejas Rodriguez, 30, of the 3000 block of 44th Street S.W., Golden Gate, was arrested by Marco Island police Tuesday at the 1000 block of Bald Eagle Drive. He was charged with grand theft $300 to $5,000.

Marco Island police reports said that on March 9 the owner of Bistro Soleil, 100 Palm Avenue, told police that he’d been running out of propane gas and that he suspected that he was being charged for gas not placed in his storage tank.

The owner told Marco officers that on March 8, his AmeriGas propane delivery man, Albejas Rodriguez, told him he could sell him propane on the side for a $1 per pound if he paid in cash.

Reports said the owner found that suspicious, because he usually has to pay $1.60 per pound and realized that the only way Abelejas Rodriguez could make the offer was if he was shortening someone else on their delivery.

On Monday, investigators contacted AmeriGas’s sales manager in Naples and were told that Albejas Rodriguez had been with them for about a year. The manager also remarked that Albejas Rodriguez was frequently over his total pounds of gas delivered, but that customers often complained that his deliveries were short on what they paid for.

Marco police arrested Albejas Rodriguez on Tuesday, after he made a delivery to Bistro Soleil.