On Monday night, one unsuspecting gas station in North Carolina lost $1600 worth of fuel after being targeted by a new kind of hi-tech approach of theft at the pump.
It’s a part of a rising trend in the USA as gas prices break all-time highs.
As the local Fox 8 station explains, the owner of the Bizzy Bee Grocery gas station lost 400 gallons of gas within a 45-minute window. The thief was able to do so through a gadget that switches the gas pump to a standalone mode.
This option allows for fuel to be dispensed without the need to pay for it. After the thief used his bypass mechanism, dozens of cars had soon shown up to get free gas, enough that soon there was a line at this station, which was an unusual sight since it was after the store had closed for the evening. Eventually, one regular customer took notice of the oddity and called the cops to deal with the situation.
"Well I lost a lot of money last night, it’s a lot of money to be lost. It’s really bad," recounted Hardik Patel, the station owner.
"We're just gonna shut off the pump at night. We didn’t sell a lot of them at night. I just totally decided not to do it at night," Patel told reporters.
It’s not the first time a situation like this has happened in recent days as gas prices exceeded an average of four dollars a gallon under the tenure of the Biden administration.
Thieves are stealing fuel due to rising gas prices:
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) March 14, 2022
"While some thieves use rubber hoses to siphon fuel out, we are seeing modern day thieves use power tools to drill a hole in the gas tank and steal fuel" pic.twitter.com/bYozZ5FOp6
Earlier this week, an ABC report highlighted a different methodology used at a gas station in Houston, Texas. Rather than hacking the way the gas pumps themselves work, thieves park their cars above the underground storage tanks to siphon fuel without even leaving their vehicle.
"The van drives on top of the fuel tank and then that’s all you see, no one comes out. So they have a trap door inside their vehicle," explains the gas station manager targeted by this method.
The segment points out that gas theft incidents are on the rise. Besides Texas, they list off California, Oregon, Washington, Wisconsin, Georgia, and Virginia as other cited places.
When it comes to messaging from the Biden administration this week, they’ve continued to blame oil companies when it comes to the high gas prices. House Democrats believe it’s un-American to blame anyone other than Vladimir Putin for the ordeal, even though they themselves have since blocked a bill proposal that’d seek to resurrect the Keystone XL Pipeline project.
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