According to this Dakota County Criminal Complaint, the 1970s are back as high gas prices have turned people back to gas siphoning to avoid paying at the pump.
From the complaint:
On February 20, 2013, at approximately 7:31 p.m., Eagan police officers received a report of an individual later identified as the above named Defendant, Matthew Owen Williams, siphoning gas from a vehicle in a business parking lot. The reporting party gave a description of the vehicle the Defendant got into when he left and the officer located that vehicle and stopped it on Neil Armstrong Boulevard, just south of Lone Oak Road in the City of Eagan, Dakota County, Minnesota. The officer approached the vehicle and identified the driver as the Defendant. The officer detected the strong odor of gasoline coming from the vehicle and detained the Defendant and read him his Miranda rights. The Defendant stated he understood his rights and agreed to talk with the officer and admitted to siphoning diesel fuel out of a vehicle in the parking lot. He said he filled two cans that each contained 5 or 6 gallons of diesel.
My father once told me of installing a lock on the door to his car’s gas tank in order to dissuade gas siphoning, a problem which was popular during the 1973 oil crisis and over the years I have seen other cars that came with it standard from the manufacturer. While in this case the siphoned diesel was less than $40 and was likely fueled by meth addiction, it’s still a concern as gas prices continuing to rise with certainly no end in sight.
Did you do anything during gas rationing to protect your vehicles against gas theft? Do you ever get into your car and wonder if the gas was siphoned off because you swear it wasn’t that low when you got in? Can you believe people are siphoning gas, drug-fueled or not, in 2013 for a measly $38 worth of disel? Whatever you have to say about this one go ahead and comment on as I’d love to hear your thoughts.
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February 27th, 2013 at 9:28 am
I bet that guy is a real devil with the ladies.
February 27th, 2013 at 9:44 am
The link is broken above, I was wondering why you thought it was a drug fueled theft vs. a guy with an empty Diesel fueled car.
I think the guy’s biggest mistake was going to a place of business to steal gas. You never know when people are going to be leaving for the day and going to their car.
I would totally have hit an apartment complex at 3 in the morning if I was going to steal gas. The odds of getting caught are way less.
February 27th, 2013 at 10:30 am
I would love to see someone try to siphon my electric vehicle. Maybe I should get a motion-activated camera and park in a hot gas siphoning spot.
It might look something like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiFa0E89LSs
February 27th, 2013 at 7:53 pm
I had a locked gas cap on my Baretta until I lost the key (super fun explaining that to a mechanic). Now I have one of those gas cap doors that you release with a button inside the car.