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: