Following up on a tip Friday afternoon that the missing fuel tank had been returned to the Mullinville City Shop, The Signal was able to reach City maintenance employee Jason Gorache shortly after he’d left work for confirmation of the tank’s reappearance.
Gorache said he’d witnessed City Councilman Jerry Boehme assisting brothers C J and Luke McFadden unloading the tank and moving it into the shop around 2:30 Thursday afternoon.
“I didn’t talk to them or go over there, but Jerry drove up separately in his pickup and the McFadden’s had the tank on the back of their truck,” Gorache said. “Jerry helped them get it back into the shop.”
Contacted Sunday afternoon Boehme said Luke McFadden had called him Wednesday to inform him he had the tank and wanted to return it the next day. “He wasn’t wanting to get himself in trouble,” Boehme said. “It was just Luke, C J and myself the next day.” The McFadden’s live and farm together north of Mullinville.
Reached later Sunday by phone Luke McFadden said the accounts relayed by Gorache and Boehme were “pretty much” what had transpired.
Asked how he and his brother had come into possession of the tank, Luke McFadden said, “It was given to me by a city council member to borrow. I was borrowing it for wheat harvest. There was just a miscommunication here.”
When asked if vice mayor and councilman Ben Lisec was the council member who’d given him the tank, McFadden replied, “I’m not going to tell you that.”
Gorache did confirm Lisec was one of the council members having a key to the shop.
Greensburg, KS —
