New tactic for fuel theft
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Administrator / Scooter Bum
Joined: Sep 2002
Posts: 9,086
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From: Central VA
New tactic for fuel theft
Saw this tonight on thehighroad.org
This did not happen to anyone I know, just want to let you know the criminals are getting creative.
This is one reason Wifey doesn't go fill her own tank.
DO NOT TURN THIS INTO A "If he tried that with me I woulda'....." THREAD.
This did not happen to anyone I know, just want to let you know the criminals are getting creative.
This is one reason Wifey doesn't go fill her own tank.
Wife Confronted at Gas Pump
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I have been swinging back and forth between fuming and terrified since she came home last night and told me what happened. We live in a sleepy rural town. She was on her way home from visiting her sister and stopped to fill up with fuel. It was around 10:00 p.m. right in town at a small mini-mart. There was car on one side of the pump (there is only one pump) and she pulled up to the other side. As she is fishing in her purse for her credit card, a beat up car pulls into the parking lot, spins around fast, and backs up to the front of her car so close she thought they would hit her. I am so proud of her, she locked the car doors and sat stilll. She still isn't sure why she did it, but her insincts were right on. The male in the car looks at her in the rear-view for a minute or two and then bursts from the car. He walks right up to the teenage boy pumping gas on the opposite side of the pump and announces that he is out of gas and needs some. He walked right up to the kid's car, took the nozzle out and walked it over to his car and pumped gas.
My wife said the poor kid just stood there shaking, he was scared to death. The gas pumper appeared to either fill his car up or take quite a bit of fuel on the young man's dime then handed him the nozzle and drove off. Wife never got out of the car, just came home. She opened the window and offered to call the police for the young man but he seemed embarassed and just wanted out of there.
We have talked almost non-stop about situational awareness since this incident. I am very proud of her although I wish she would have made a report. Both of us have gone from "sleepy little town" mode to "maximum awareness" mode in short order.
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I have been swinging back and forth between fuming and terrified since she came home last night and told me what happened. We live in a sleepy rural town. She was on her way home from visiting her sister and stopped to fill up with fuel. It was around 10:00 p.m. right in town at a small mini-mart. There was car on one side of the pump (there is only one pump) and she pulled up to the other side. As she is fishing in her purse for her credit card, a beat up car pulls into the parking lot, spins around fast, and backs up to the front of her car so close she thought they would hit her. I am so proud of her, she locked the car doors and sat stilll. She still isn't sure why she did it, but her insincts were right on. The male in the car looks at her in the rear-view for a minute or two and then bursts from the car. He walks right up to the teenage boy pumping gas on the opposite side of the pump and announces that he is out of gas and needs some. He walked right up to the kid's car, took the nozzle out and walked it over to his car and pumped gas.
My wife said the poor kid just stood there shaking, he was scared to death. The gas pumper appeared to either fill his car up or take quite a bit of fuel on the young man's dime then handed him the nozzle and drove off. Wife never got out of the car, just came home. She opened the window and offered to call the police for the young man but he seemed embarassed and just wanted out of there.
We have talked almost non-stop about situational awareness since this incident. I am very proud of her although I wish she would have made a report. Both of us have gone from "sleepy little town" mode to "maximum awareness" mode in short order.
I know, I know, but someone had to be the first! 
Registered User
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 167
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From: Frostburg Md.
Good for her. She kept her head about her. I hope my wife would do the same. Even if she was in the teenagers position, I would hope she would do just what the kid did. let him have it !!! 50 bucks in fuel isn't worth my wife getting hurt.
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Registered User
Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 6,457
Likes: 95
From: KENTUCKY
Since you brought up gas stealing, you all may have seen this in the news a few weeks ago.
In a neighboring county, some enterprising thieves remodeled the insides of a gooseneck horse-trailer, converting it into a mobile fuel stealing unit.
They installed a trap-door in the floor, a big FAST-ACTING 12-volt fuel-pump, and some large tanks.
It is uncertain just how long this had been going on, or how many places they hit, or how many gallons they stole, before finally getting caught.
The way they pulled it off was the driver would pull around the fuel-stop, be it a little mom-and-pop store, or a busy gas-mart, and park such that the trap-door lined up with the cap over the in-ground tank, doing so with the aid of on-board truck-to-trailer intercom.
He would leave the engine running, both to provide power to the pump, and to mask any noise it might make.
While he went inside and used the rest-room, and otherwise killed some time, his accomplice in the trailer was busily sucking the on-board tanks full of fuel.
These guys had a pretty good scheme working and I really don't know quite what eventually got them caught.
Many many years ago, back when gas was about forty-cents a gallon, our filling station was hit by a similar band of thieves to the tune of around a thousand gallons.
In a neighboring county, some enterprising thieves remodeled the insides of a gooseneck horse-trailer, converting it into a mobile fuel stealing unit.
They installed a trap-door in the floor, a big FAST-ACTING 12-volt fuel-pump, and some large tanks.
It is uncertain just how long this had been going on, or how many places they hit, or how many gallons they stole, before finally getting caught.
The way they pulled it off was the driver would pull around the fuel-stop, be it a little mom-and-pop store, or a busy gas-mart, and park such that the trap-door lined up with the cap over the in-ground tank, doing so with the aid of on-board truck-to-trailer intercom.
He would leave the engine running, both to provide power to the pump, and to mask any noise it might make.
While he went inside and used the rest-room, and otherwise killed some time, his accomplice in the trailer was busily sucking the on-board tanks full of fuel.
These guys had a pretty good scheme working and I really don't know quite what eventually got them caught.
Many many years ago, back when gas was about forty-cents a gallon, our filling station was hit by a similar band of thieves to the tune of around a thousand gallons.
Registered User
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 1,118
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From: Winchester, TN
I was in a Loves truck stop in Lubbock, TX (I think) one time and saw some thives pull a scam out at the car gas fuel pumps. They came in two seperate cars. One parked at pump #6 and the other car on the opposite side at pump #7. The guy comes in and hands the lady $30 and says turn on pump #7 so the car at pump 7 fills up and the guy comes back in and asks did you turn my pump on? The lady says which one? he points it at and she says that's pump 6 you told me pump 7. And while this is going on the car at pump 7 pulls out and leaves with free gas. The guy acts all mad and says just give me my money back. Really she had no choice and that's what she did and everyone was talking about how sorry that was afterwards.
Registered User
Joined: Nov 2004
Posts: 520
Likes: 0
From: Cypress. Texas 77433
Ed,
Thanks for the post. Always a new way to steal things. I will pass it on.
The pump out the tanks has been going on for years. There was a ring in WA state that did that, but the did it when the station was closed. Not sure how they got caught.
Thanks for the post. Always a new way to steal things. I will pass it on.
The pump out the tanks has been going on for years. There was a ring in WA state that did that, but the did it when the station was closed. Not sure how they got caught.
Thread Starter
Administrator / Scooter Bum
Joined: Sep 2002
Posts: 9,086
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From: Central VA
Registered User
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 776
Likes: 1
From: Nickelsville, Va
I hate thieves as well, but you gotta admit the thing with the gooseneck was pretty innovative! I never would've thought of doing a thing like that.
Pretty dangerous too considering a 12V DC pump is brushed and having all those fumes in an enclosed area like that. Thats an instant Class 1 Division 1 location with a sparking device present! Thats one bad thing about thieves, they're usually not too safety minded.
Id say they found them when the thing blew and leveled the parking lot
Pretty dangerous too considering a 12V DC pump is brushed and having all those fumes in an enclosed area like that. Thats an instant Class 1 Division 1 location with a sparking device present! Thats one bad thing about thieves, they're usually not too safety minded.
Id say they found them when the thing blew and leveled the parking lot
Registered User
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 239
Likes: 1
From: Ashland, KY
A couple of months back around here, there was a big news report of, get this, a couple of guys going to a local car dealership and drilling holes, yes i said it, in the bottom of the gas tanks and draining the gas out.
Also one of the local toyota dealerships had over $100,000 worth of cat converters stole in one night my a group of guys with battery operated recrip saws...
Also one of the local toyota dealerships had over $100,000 worth of cat converters stole in one night my a group of guys with battery operated recrip saws...