Beware of Gas Thieves

[Dale King]

A few days ago, I saw a segment on the news where thieves are breaking into gas stations in the middle of the night and stealing gas.

With gas prices continuing to climb, I figure people are going to get more and more desperate, and eventually they're going to start siphoning gas from people's cars.

In that regard, I highly recommend you invest in a locking gas cap for your car. I bought one for my car over the weekend. It cost $14.95 - a small price to pay for peace of mind!

Dale King

[Mega B]

Dale i guess that will happen over here in the UK as the prices are much more than what you guys pay,so what i suggest would be invest in a locking petrol cap to protect your petrol


ps,why dont they call it petrol like we do rather than gas

[JLeezer]

ps,why dont they call it petrol like we do rather than gas

Because we're Americans and we can call it whatever we believe to be correct! HAHA. Actually, according to wikipedia's gasoline page (I know, I know...wikipedia is not the authoritative source on everything, but they usually are pretty accurate):

The word "gasolene" was coined in 1865 from the word gas and the chemical suffix -ine/-ene. The modern spelling was first used in 1871. The shortened form "gas" was first recorded in American English in 1905.[2] Gasoline originally referred to any liquid used as the fuel for a gasoline-powered engine, other than diesel fuel or liquefied gas; methanol racing fuel would have been classed as a type of gasoline.[3]

The word "petrol" was first used in reference to the refined substance as early as 1892 (it was previously used to refer to unrefined petroleum), and was registered as a trade name by British wholesaler Carless, Capel & Leonard at the suggestion of Frederick Richard Simms.[4] Although it was never officially registered as a trademark, Carless's competitors used the term "Motor Spirit" until the 1930s.[2][5] It has also been suggested that the word was coined by Edward Butler in 1887.[6]

In Germany and some other European countries, gasoline is called Benzin (German and Danish), Bensin (Swedish and Norwegian), Benzyna (Polish), Benzina (Catalan), Benzină (Romanian), Бензин (Russian), and other variants of this word. The usage does not derive from Bertha Benz, who used chemist shops to purchase the gasoline for her famous drive from Mannheim to Pforzheim in 1888, but from the chemical benzene.

So, as we can see from the dates above, it turns out that the rest of the world just didn't catch on to the term gasoline, but that gasoline was in fact in use prior to petrol, at least in reference to the refined liquid that powers gasoline-powered engines.

[Dale King]

Dale i guess that will happen over here in the UK as the prices are much more than what you guys pay,so what i suggest would be invest in a locking petrol cap to protect your petrol

Rick, I will definitely take that under advisement.

Dale King

[LiL1Penny]

The thieves are also stealing license plates. A friend of mine had her's stolen the other day and when she reported it she was informed that the they steal the plates and put them over their own so they can fill up their tanks and drive off.
Don't know what can be done to prevent that but keep an eye on your license plates.

[Mega B]

Dale you have started a good subject here,regarding number plate problems over in London we have Congestion charge in place to so call reduce the amount of traffic in the City but we aint stupid its just another way of raising money via taxes and normally you would either pay by going on line and paying by credit card or cameras at various points pick up your number plate and then check to see if you have payed and if not you get sent a bill by mail.
But people are stealing these plates and adding them to there car and then drive around in front of every camera going so you get free passage around the Capital and other people are sent the bill.

What a world we live in.

[Dale King]

Dale you have started a good subject here,regarding number plate problems over in London we have Congestion charge in place to so call reduce the amount of traffic in the City but we aint stupid its just another way of raising money via taxes and normally you would either pay by going on line and paying by credit card or cameras at various points pick up your number plate and then check to see if you have payed and if not you get sent a bill by mail.
But people are stealing these plates and adding them to there car and then drive around in front of every camera going so you get free passage around the Capital and other people are sent the bill.

What a world we live in.

Rick, the UK and U.S are far too civilized. In some countries they would chop off your hand if you were caught stealing. Needless to say, theft isn't a huge problem in those countries. Perhaps we need to become a little more barbaric when it comes to dealing with thieves. Because it sure seems like the inmates are running the asylum.

Dale King

[Phoebe]

Damn thives are stealing everything now

[JLeezer]

Rick, the UK and U.S are far too civilized. In some countries they would chop off your hand if you were caught stealing. Needless to say, theft isn't a huge problem in those countries. Perhaps we need to become a little more barbaric when it comes to dealing with thieves. Because it sure seems like the inmates are running the asylum.

Dale King

This is somewhat off topic (at least the original, maybe not as a follow up to the above quoted one), but the wife and I were walking into a TGI Fridays for dinner Saturday night and saw a woman (maybe early twenties) sitting on the bench outside smoking a cigarette. My wife turned to me just about at the same time I turned to her and I asked, "Is she pregnant?" To which my wife replied, "Yep." At which point I said something to the gist of: You know, I think it should be legal for someone to smack her upside the head for smoking while she's pregnant. Ignorance isn't an excuse anymore, especially as we're in one of the richest areas of the country.

And quite honestly, I feel like at least other mothers or children of mothers who smoked when they were fetuses should be allowed to smack someone like that upside the head. Maybe eventually she'd be so sore from being smacked she would think twice before smoking and messing up her kid's life.

But, that's just my opinion. If you want to start up a thread of "What we're doing wrong in the US that's contributing to our downfall" or "What we're doing wrong in the US that's leading to an increased population of idiots", I'll be the most frequent poster.

[stand856]

Same with smoking with the kids in the car = child abuse in my mind.

[Hooman]

A few days ago, I saw a segment on the news where thieves are breaking into gas stations in the middle of the night and stealing gas.

With gas prices continuing to climb, I figure people are going to get more and more desperate, and eventually they're going to start siphoning gas from people's cars.

In that regard, I highly recommend you invest in a locking gas cap for your car. I bought one for my car over the weekend. It cost $14.95 - a small price to pay for peace of mind!

Dale King

That's very interesting. When I traveled to Iran last summer, I noticed this was very common - people breaking into other people's gas tanks, and also people with locks on their caps.

Of course, there gas itself is really cheap (like 40 cents per gallon), so that wasn't the issue. But the reason it happened there is because gas was rationed to 100 liters per person per month. And that's because the government doesn't have the machinery to convert oil to gasoline. Sure, they have lots of oil, but because of sanctions, they can't purchase/repair the machinery required to refine their oil reserves. That's why they're moving towards nuclear power. Because at least it will help reduce the use of oil for fueling other things.

I find it comical that we are living in the United States, yet our citizens are starting to face the same sorts of issues as 3rd-world countries in the supposed "axis of evil." And Iran is not as backwards or uncivilized as the media makes it out to be.

Funny. I'll watch out for this though, thanks for the heads up. I bet it's going to go over $5 a gallon by August.

Edit: By the way, Iran is not one of those countries where they chop off your hand. If you steal in Iran, they put you on public television, and make you apologize, which is actually pretty funny. Then they put you in prison for 1-3 years (without a trial, and no options for bail, etc.).

[teomabanta]

Well speaking of gas thieves (not literally, but..) a couple of weeks ago some old lady lost $50,000 from identity theft by using her credit card at a gas station... It was the swiping your card and stealing information from the magnetic strip thing .... What's scarier is that it happened to a gas station that I go to everyday, 2 blocks away from my house.

[HarveyJ]

Credit card scams are most likely to be perpetrated directly by the person you hand your card to at a service counter...

As for fuel theft, I've heard of some petrol stations get tyre spikes installed. If you try to drive off too fast, there go your tires, and they can also make them lock into place at the push of a button so that if you try to drive off slowly without paying, it'll STILL spike your tyres. Bloody clever.

[Dale King]

That's very interesting. When I traveled to Iran last summer, I noticed this was very common - people breaking into other people's gas tanks, and also people with locks on their caps.

Of course, there gas itself is really cheap (like 40 cents per gallon), so that wasn't the issue. But the reason it happened there is because gas was rationed to 100 liters per person per month. And that's because the government doesn't have the machinery to convert oil to gasoline. Sure, they have lots of oil, but because of sanctions, they can't purchase/repair the machinery required to refine their oil reserves. That's why they're moving towards nuclear power. Because at least it will help reduce the use of oil for fueling other things.

I find it comical that we are living in the United States, yet our citizens are starting to face the same sorts of issues as 3rd-world countries in the supposed "axis of evil." And Iran is not as backwards or uncivilized as the media makes it out to be.

Funny. I'll watch out for this though, thanks for the heads up. I bet it's going to go over $5 a gallon by August.

Edit: By the way, Iran is not one of those countries where they chop off your hand. If you steal in Iran, they put you on public television, and make you apologize, which is actually pretty funny. Then they put you in prison for 1-3 years (without a trial, and no options for bail, etc.).

Now that was an interesting and informative response. I sure learned something. Thank you, Hooman!

Dale King

[dima08]

Siphoning gas is not a new concept. I read plenty of articles of robbers stealing gas in europe awhile back. A locking gas cap is a solid investment. It is sad that it has to come down to this though.