Thieves hit Lincoln County’s District 1 barn sometime over the weekend and made off with a ton of gasoline — literally.

Lincoln County Sheriff Steve Rushing said an intruder at the maintenance facility on East Lincoln Road stole one electric hoist and 279 gallons of gasoline — almost 1,800 pounds — sometime after the county crews locked the front gate Friday afternoon. The front gate was still locked Monday morning, no security cameras are installed at the barn and no witnesses have come forward.

“We’ll see if we can come up with anything, but it’s going to be hard,” Rushing said.

Rushing said he suspects the thief, or thieves, sneaked into the rear of the facility through the woods, though he’s not sure how the swindlers carried away 279 gallons of gasoline, which would take many, many trips with a couple of gas cans and is far more than even two or three vehicles can hold.

The barn has a large gas tank where crews fill up their vehicles — they lock it up at night and over the weekends, but the lock was nowhere to be seen Monday morning when District 1 Supervisor Rev. Jerry Wilson came into work. Wilson discussed the theft briefly at Monday’s board of supervisors meeting, and was clearly upset.

“You shoot ’em, and everybody’s upset. We’re not going to shoot ’em, but people just come and take stuff, and then you don’t have the equipment to do what you need to do in the district,” he said.

Anyone with any information about the theft is asked to call CrimeStoppers at 601-823-0150 or the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office at 601-833-5231.