Video: Gasoline thieves
posted at 10:15 am on July 7, 2008 by Ed Morrissey
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ABC News highlights a predictable effect of supply shortages: gas thieves. Even before the price at the pump escalated significantly this year, gas thefts accounted for more than $130 million in losses for station owners — almost entirely family-owned businesses, with only 2% of stations in the US owned and operated by the oil companies. Thefts range from a few gallons to covert operations involving thousands of gallons, as ABC helpfully demonstrates in its report:
Maybe it would have been better to leave out the how-to on getting free gas from the pumps.
The high-volume effort also points out another potential problem. Instead of acquiring massive amounts of ammonium nitrate for truck bombs of the type used by Timothy McVeigh in Oklahoma City, terrorists of any stripe could draw out a trailerful of gasoline instead as an explosive. Even if the thieves had only commercial motives in mind, these contraptions probably don’t have rigorous safety standards — putting everyone on the road in danger.
At least the gas thieves haven’t gotten this … melodramatic:
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Weird or not, it’s usually “i before e except after c” (thief). HS Grad card told me so; it must be true.
maverick muse on July 7, 2008 at 10:19 AM
SECOND LOOK AT ‘RAGGEDY MAN!’
Limerick on July 7, 2008 at 10:24 AM
Sorry! Fixed the typo.
Ed Morrissey on July 7, 2008 at 10:24 AM
A blogger from Mexico was bemoaning on behalf of the bitching Mexican locals south of the border that Americans legally enter Mexico to purchase gasoline for a couple of bucks a gallon, hogging the local supplies kept cheap by Mexican government subsidy provided by oil, not by Mexican taxes. Unlike the Mexican aliens entering our country illegally and hogging the billions of taxpaying citizens’ dollars spent on their education, medication, housing and food subsidies, judicial and prison expenses, these Americans enter Mexico legally to make purchases, not to steal. But they begrudge the sales all the same, damn gringos…
Should be “Damn Democrat Greengo Short-End” in unison.
maverick muse on July 7, 2008 at 10:31 AM
The truck with the siphon is pretty impressive.
Instead of selling oranges on the side of the road, will immigrants be selling gas?
right2bright on July 7, 2008 at 10:32 AM
“YOU CAN RUN! BUT YOU CAN’T HIDE!!”
CurtZHP on July 7, 2008 at 10:47 AM
I’m sure Obama will raise the tax on fuel and this entire situation will simply go away.
Hening on July 7, 2008 at 10:48 AM
I worry about this with heating oil getting near $5 a gallon. Most of the houses on my street including mine can not be seen from the road. All it would take is a guy with an oil truck to come in and suck our tanks dry.
jmarcure on July 7, 2008 at 10:50 AM
True. I had one liberal telling me that if we double the gas tax that the price per gallon would drop to $2.50 and a tripling would put it below $2 within 3 months. I’m beginning to think that intelligence does not mean what liberals think it means.
jmarcure on July 7, 2008 at 10:54 AM
Please–no jokes about what Mel Gibson says to the female cop who finally is able to pull him over.
jgapinoy on July 7, 2008 at 10:54 AM
Hey, where can I get me one o’ them gas pump keys? Way to go ABC! Let’s just have a seminar on how to steal gas. Interesting story though.
Big John on July 7, 2008 at 10:59 AM
Obama doesn’t dare pump his own gas, according to Michelle.
Although he’ll be at the Peking (screw “Beijing”) Olympics as the leader of the Freestyle Backflip Team.
profitsbeard on July 7, 2008 at 10:59 AM
Here in the People’s Republik of Oregon, the State doesn’t think it wise for the People to pump their own gas anyways. Gas theft is very difficult here as there are gas attendants everywhere. I worry about night raids in the neighborhood…it ain’t that hard to siphon gas safely.
Wyznowski on July 7, 2008 at 11:07 AM
Sawyer the Food Lion, 1970 Chevy exploding gas tank
queen and ABC News. Present:
“The thieves think they are hurting the oil co.”
WHAT ! ! Since when are thieves that selective
Texyank on July 7, 2008 at 11:38 AM
Safely? If it were me I’d just punch a hole in the gas tank and have a couple of buckets handy. You don’t have to worry about explosions because only the fumes are troublesome but just to be on the safe side I’d only do it to cars with cool mufflers. I also think I’d stick to SUVs and trucks because they are higher off the ground and carry more gas. Give me a little time and I’m sure I could come up with something that would punch a hole in the tank and drain it into a gas can. Think big IV needle type of gadget.
jmarcure on July 7, 2008 at 11:47 AM
*Sigh*
RedLasso.
/Fully updated Flash, Firefox, etc. user
HYTEAndy on July 7, 2008 at 11:52 AM
Valuables do not cause crime.
Criminals cause crime.
All valuables do is bring the criminals out of the woodwork. If our criminal justice system weren’t so overloaded, we’d welcome the chance to catch them and put them behind bars. Or, at least, the non-Great-Society, non-Leftist people would.
njcommuter on July 7, 2008 at 11:58 AM
Agreed!
I get really annoyed at news stories that say “Price of X is causing crime”.
The current price of gas in California has caused my roommate and I to take fewer of the 40-mile round trips to visit his family each month, but, that’s about it.
Oddly enough, it hasn’t caused us to break any laws yet.
Perhaps we’re just stronger than the average person and we’ll reach our criminal tipping point soon?
Of course, we all know that gas was never stolen before the price of gas went up….
JadeNYU on July 7, 2008 at 12:43 PM
Heck, let’s quintuple the tax and then gas will be free. Even better, up the tax by 10x and the oil companies will be paying us to take their gas.
rbj on July 7, 2008 at 12:54 PM
Another trick thieves do is steal your license plate, hit a self-serve station, steal gas, and it’s YOU that the cops track down, using surveillance cameras from the gas station. You’re usually cleared when the plates don’t match your vehicle make/model in the vid, but they’ve already stolen the gas.
Buy locking gas caps as well.
RMCS_USN on July 7, 2008 at 1:12 PM
haven’t had problems with RL for a long time now, which is.. a relief.
Gas still ain’t that friggin’ expensive, but people still bitch and moan about it. Why? Because it’s petrol. I am yet to hear one person complain about the price of a litre of milk, because the newsos don’t push that as a story of great ‘concern’ and/or ‘importance’
Seriously, it’s averaging about $1.50 for a litre of 91e, but people will still pay nearly $2 for a litre of milk without raising an eyebrow..
Interestingly I don’t think you can ‘hack’ our bowsers like those ones in the video did. Even the maintenance guys have to get the pump authorised, but then again..
Reaps on July 7, 2008 at 1:54 PM
Gasoline is not explosive enough to make a good terrorist tool.
mpbk on July 7, 2008 at 2:18 PM
On a smaller scale than featured here in the ’70s it was necessary to have a locking gas cap to keep people from stealing gas from your car.
TooTall on July 7, 2008 at 3:11 PM
If these thieves who stage these elaborate thefts directed their efforts towards something legal and productive to society (like the gas station owners who are being ripped off), they wouldn’t have to be thieves all the time.
Sigh.
asc85 on July 7, 2008 at 4:34 PM
$70,000? So… 3 gallons?
AbaddonsReign on July 7, 2008 at 5:31 PM
Something similar to the trailer situation happened when I was a kid. Only instead of stealing gas they were putting out bread crumbs under the floor of a van and grabbing the ducks from the local park through a trap door. Totally unrelated I know. Just a funny self reminder.
multiuseless on July 7, 2008 at 6:05 PM
I thought the end of the world was going to look like Waterworld, not Thunderdome. Please tell me Al Gore isn’t wrong.
TexasDan on July 7, 2008 at 9:58 PM