Gas Thefts Rise With Gas Prices

[Marika]

Gas Thefts Rise With Gas Prices

By Tom Jackman and Ann E. Marimow

Washington Post Staff Writers

Saturday, September 10, 2005; B01

It's just an old steel gas tank, discreetly tucked behind two storage trailers on a construction site in southern Fairfax County. But when workers from Heritage Site Development went to gas up their vehicles Tuesday morning, it was empty. Four hundred gallons of off-road diesel fuel -- gone.

Mike Bertelson, Heritage's owner, said the fuel cost him about $1,000, at "only" $2.50 a gallon. "That's a lot of money, for me," Bertelson said. "My fear is it's going to become more rampant."

As gas prices have soared, first with rising crude oil costs and then the disruptions of Hurricane Katrina, gasoline has become a far more precious commodity, inspiring increasing thefts at the pumps and more siphoning from motorists' gas tanks, authorities said yesterday.

Before Katrina hit, the Maryland State Police barracks in La Plata typically received two reports a week of motorists pumping gas and not paying. Two weeks ago, the call volume climbed to at least two a day and sometimes more, said Detective Sgt. Ronald Best, who responded to the calls.

"It dramatically changed after the hurricane," he said. "Gas is almost like liquid gold."

The rise in the number of motorists driving off without paying persuaded the owners of at least one chain of convenience stores to change the way customers pay to fill up. Last Saturday, Wawa stores began requiring drivers using cash to pay in advance.

"Industry-wide, gasoline retailers are experiencing a marked increase in 'drive-offs' at fuel pumps," said a statement released by Pennsylvania-based Wawa to explain its prepayment policy. "Drive-offs may create unsafe situations on store lots, and contribute to higher prices."

After the policy changed this week, Best said he noticed a drop in the number of calls from gas stations.

Jeff Lenard, a spokesman for the National Association of Convenience Stores, said one store in the Midwest reported three thefts in one day totaling $210. "You can't afford even one of those a day with the low [profit] margins," Lenard said. "We're seeing a dramatic increase in the number of retailers who say, 'That's it, we're going to go prepay,' " Lenard added, although that discourages some customers from stopping.

The District has the most-expensive gas in the country, according to AAA Mid-Atlantic, at an average of $3.34 a gallon for regular unleaded, while Maryland's gas averages $3.23 a gallon and Virginia's averages $3.09. A D.C. police spokesman said there had been no reports of gasoline thefts in the District.

In Waldorf, library technician Patricia Baker returned home from browsing yard sales last weekend to find the gas tank of her Chevy Cavalier drained.

"If someone needed some, I would have given them half of what I had, but to take it from you like that . . . " she said in disbelief.

Baker, 64, remembers waiting in long lines to buy gas during the Arab oil embargo in the 1970s. But, she said, "they didn't steal your gas then." Baker said she went out Thursday to buy a gas cap with a lock.

Fairfax police had four reported instances of gas siphoned from private vehicles in the first three days of this week, Officer Beth Funston said. "Since the price of gas has gone up, we've noticed an increase in these issues," she said.

The 400-gallon theft from the construction site was also in Fairfax -- on Gunston Cove Road in the Lorton area. Funston said Heritage's tank was padlocked, and when workers arrived Tuesday after the Labor Day weekend, the lock was gone -- along with the fuel.

"I've got a mechanic working on some kind of device to make the lock tougher," Bertelson said. "But like they say, locks are only there to keep the honest man out."

Construction companies have not been reporting an increase in filched fuel, said Calli Schmidt, a spokeswoman for the Northern Virginia Building Industry Association.

Then again, she said, construction sites are perpetually beleaguered by thefts, gas being just one target.

"Short of hiring a full-time armed guard 24 hours a day, seven days a week, there's not a whole lot you can do," she said.

In Montgomery County, a police spokesman said the department is more concerned about residents who leave their garage doors open or sheds unlocked, exposing gas-guzzling lawn mowers and cars.

"That's just too tempting. Locking it up and putting it out of sight is important to prevent yourself from becoming a victim," said Officer Derek Baliles, a spokesman for the department.

"We definitely have seen an increase in drive-offs" in recent weeks, said Kraig Troxell, a spokesman for the Loudoun County sheriff's office. Between Sept. 1 and yesterday, the sheriff's office took eight reports of gas-pump theft. During the same period last year, four were reported, Troxell said.

"You can't get into their minds, but you would have to speculate that the higher prices . . . have something to do with it," Troxell said.

Shirley Floyd, a clerk at the Plaza Shell station in Leesburg, said surging prices have put the station on guard. These days, customers using cash after 6 p.m. are informed by notes on the pumps, and occasionally by a clerk's voice over the loudspeaker, that they must prepay.

"We just know that there's a higher potential for people" to pilfer fuel when prices are high, she said.

At a Shell station on Lorton Road in southern Fairfax, cashiers won't turn the pump on now for a customer if they are unfamiliar or have out-of-state tags, cashier Muhammad Butt said.

"We want them to come in, pay first," he said. "Then we turn them on."

Staff writer Karin Brulliard contributed to this report.

© 2005 The Washington Post Company

[chevyorange]

God Bless Mohammed Butt.

[addison_ii]

There was a story maybe about 2 weeks ago where a station owner got ran over trying to stop a motorist who pumped and ran. I think these gas thefts are wrong but are going to increase even more. Hopefully more stations go to prepaid pumps or this is going to continue to happen.

[bigjayzway]

Do what they are doing here in Canada....JUST let em go!

The radio even said the Police departments are so flooded with drive offs, they can't do anything anymore!

So just let em go!

I agree with it, they want to steal from us, hey....you know the saying "you can only throw so much at a fan before it throws it back!"

Big Jay

[ted tcb]

To me, stealing gas is no different than the jerk who hit and ran from BobD's STS.

Crime is crime, shouldn't be rationalized, and we all pay for it.

Stealing from an insurance company, the government and profiteering oil companies

seems to be an accepted crime.

Unfortunately, we all pay. If you don't agree with the price of gas, then park your car and walk, jog, bike, car pool, or take a bus .... ripping off Mohammed for 40 bucks doesn't help the honest people pumping and paying beside you.

[bigjayzway]

To me, stealing gas is no different than the jerk who hit and ran from BobD's STS.

Crime is crime, shouldn't be rationalized, and we all pay for it.

Stealing from an insurance company, the government and profiteering oil companies

seems to be an accepted crime.

Unfortunately, we all pay. If you don't agree with the price of gas, then park your car and walk, jog, bike, car pool, or take a bus .... ripping off Mohammed for 40 bucks doesn't help the honest people pumping and paying beside you.

You don't think that "mohamad" has to pay do you?

The gas attendant doesn't pay the loss, the head office does.

I don't agree from takin from the little guy at all!

I do however care less about the oil companies.

I can tell you this, cause of people like you, is the reason they can keep jackin our prices, cause the way they see it is "they'll pay it, keep goin up!"

On the other hand, if these drive offs, and guys going and stealing the gas from the oil companies continue, they will have no choice but to lower it, cause there end profit will be getting sacrificed.

Now I am not one of these people that drive off with gas, or do I steal it, but I certainly agree that the prices are ridiculous, and in some areas the gas is more than a lier of MILK for God sakes.

I know of several people that have parked their cars, and don't go anywhere, anymore.

What do the people do that don't live in the city? They don't have public transportation!

You know, I can go on and on, but the bottom line is, I am not going to get pi**ed off at the guy that does run with it!

Big Jay

[ted tcb]

I can tell you this, cause of people like you, is the reason they can keep jackin our prices, cause the way they see it is "they'll pay it, keep goin up!"

Now Jay, you cannot possibly be serious. Any 1st year economics major has the common sense to understand that petty theft will neither topple nor change the gross margin structure of a billion dollar conglomerate.

As I stated, a shift in conservation practices is the best form of protest .... public transit, walking, car pooling, biking, restricting unnecessary drives, etc.

Because I'm against fuel theft, I'm the cause of price gouging

Get real ... I spend $20 bucks a week on gas, driving about 5k a year. If I couldn't afford the $20, I'd crawl before I rip off my fellow man.

Theft is theft, one cannot rationalize the stance that crime against a corporation doesn't count.

By the way, how can you be so certain that the independant owner of the gas station isn't victimized here? I have a friend who operates a Cango station, works 80hrs a week, isn't wealthy, and buys his gas from his distributor ... doesn't matter whether he sells the gas or waters his lawn with it ... he pays for the cost of the liquid weight, delivered twice a week. Not that the thieves give a rat's *smurf* towards their victim.

As an analogy to your thought process on theft, if my bank machine spits out a few extra $20's, do I keep them because of excessive quarterly profits? Not a chance, because it is unconscionable and morally wrong. Not being savvy enough to indentify the victim in no way nullifies the crime.

Whether Mohammed pays the freight or not isn't the point. A crime remains a crime, irregardless of whom you victimize. Like many, I've been the victim of theft, and I despise the cowardice of the act at every single level ... if you can't pay for your purchase, then sell your bloody car.

Not your car, though .... that freshly waxed black STS is too sweet to sell.

[Ranger]

I can tell you this, cause of people like you, is the reason they can keep jackin our prices, cause the way they see it is "they'll pay it, keep goin up!"

On the other hand, if these drive offs, and guys going and stealing the gas from the oil companies continue, they will have no choice but to lower it, cause there end profit will be getting sacrificed.

You cannot honestly believe that malarky. If you do, then you must think that insurance fraud lowers premiums. If thefts continue, the only thing that will change is that YOU will be treated like a potential criminal and have the inconvinience of paying in advance forced upon you.

[caddypete]

THE PRICE OF GASOLINE NEEDS TO GET OUTRAGOUS, It is the only way we will wake up and find alternate fuels, oil supplies cannot last forever, we one day have to face that fact. When other fuels are developed, the middle east wil just be a big sandbox to us we will have no interest in it. no reason to spend billions of tax dollars and countless lives in that area of the world. And they can go back to waring with each other for whatever reason they can find or wandering the desert with their camels because without the money from oil they will regress back to the dark ages and forget about us.

[bigjayzway]

WOW! Easy guys, I don't do the drive offs!

I am saying let them do it!

I am not going to stop them, and I figure if the theft gets bad enough they will think hard about lowering the prices....like they did with cigarettes!

Maybe I am wrong!

I didn't mean for TED to get the feeling that I meant he was the person in the wrong.

I will shut up now!

Big Jay

[ted tcb]

WOW! Easy guys, I don't do the drive offs!

I am saying let them do it!

I am not going to stop them, and I figure if the theft gets bad enough they will think hard about lowering the prices....like they did with cigarettes!

Maybe I am wrong!

I didn't mean for TED to get the feeling that I meant he was the person in the wrong.

I will shut up now!

Big Jay

No hard feelings ... I may need you in the future to scout out a p.o.s. beater from

The CaddyShack some day

[JasonA]

I wholeheartedly agree with CaddyPete. As long as gasoline is relatively cheap, there's no reason for change. And despite the much higher prices recently, people are STILL buying huge trucks when all they do is go to the mall and back.

I do think I'm going to go back on what I said in another post, regarding what our next vehicle will be if something happens to the Cadillac. My next vehicle will be something that runs on E85. Right now, there are no Cadillacs that I know of that will run E85. Do the math and realize that if you're getting 20 mpg running E85 (which is only 15% gasoline), that's like getting over 133 mpg of GASOLINE. Right now, we fill our tanks with 20 gallons of 100% gasoline. If that were E85, our Cadillacs would only hold THREE gallons of gasoline (the rest, ethanol).

Our Grand Caravan is a flex fuel vehicle (it runs on either gasoline or E85), and I'd love to see more auto makers incorporate that into more vehicles. This is one of the areas were domestics really have it over imports. The only import engine that runs E85 is the new Nissan Titan truck. In comparison, there are a lot of domestics that run it, and that really opens the potential to decrease our foreign demand. Forget these trendy Hybrids, they do relatively little in the big picture. Sure, 10-20% here and there helps, but get the big fish...running E85 is an 85% savings on foreign petrol.

I'm loving these gas prices, because talks of ethanol plants on the east coast are sky rocketing! They have it big in the midwest, but now that prices of gas are high, they're talking about some plants out there. I'd love it. I've gotta say, if an E85 station opened up here, I would think hard about selling the Seville and buying something else that runs E85.

[Bruce Nunnally]

Oh. I thought E85 was 15% ethanol, not Ethanol 85% (E85) and gas 15%.

http://www.energy.ca.gov/afvs/vehicle_fact...ts/ethanol.html

So Gas with up to 10% ethanol can run in any engine, but E85 needs an E85 flex fuel vehicle. Don't know that I have seen any E85 gas stops in my neighborhood. Can some E85 vehicles use gas for longer trips? Hate to end up in some rural area with no E85 pump, although I suppose you could mix 15% gas + alcohol?

[JimD]

People stealing gasoline is only a symptom. The current gas price bump could be seen as a wake-up call to North American motorists (and auto makers) from Katrina. Maybe that would be too much to hope for.

How will you alter your driving patterns when gasoline is $6.00 or more per gallon (if you can find it)? At what price per gallon would you decline to own a (dino fuel) powered vehicle?

[KHE]

People stealing gasoline is only a symptom. The current gas price bump could be seen as a wake-up call to North American motorists (and auto makers) from Katrina. Maybe that would be too much to hope for.

How will you alter your driving patterns when gasoline is $6.00 or more per gallon (if you can find it)? At what price per gallon would you decline to own a (dino fuel) powered vehicle?

The problem is not a low supply of oil but rather, the US refinery capacity is at 90%+. Environmentalists oppose any construction of refineries....and the silent majority pays the price.

[KHE]

I wholeheartedly agree with CaddyPete. As long as gasoline is relatively cheap, there's no reason for change. And despite the much higher prices recently, people are STILL buying huge trucks when all they do is go to the mall and back.

I do think I'm going to go back on what I said in another post, regarding what our next vehicle will be if something happens to the Cadillac. My next vehicle will be something that runs on E85. Right now, there are no Cadillacs that I know of that will run E85. Do the math and realize that if you're getting 20 mpg running E85 (which is only 15% gasoline), that's like getting over 133 mpg of GASOLINE. Right now, we fill our tanks with 20 gallons of 100% gasoline. If that were E85, our Cadillacs would only hold THREE gallons of gasoline (the rest, ethanol).

Our Grand Caravan is a flex fuel vehicle (it runs on either gasoline or E85), and I'd love to see more auto makers incorporate that into more vehicles. This is one of the areas were domestics really have it over imports. The only import engine that runs E85 is the new Nissan Titan truck. In comparison, there are a lot of domestics that run it, and that really opens the potential to decrease our foreign demand. Forget these trendy Hybrids, they do relatively little in the big picture. Sure, 10-20% here and there helps, but get the big fish...running E85 is an 85% savings on foreign petrol.

I'm loving these gas prices, because talks of ethanol plants on the east coast are sky rocketing! They have it big in the midwest, but now that prices of gas are high, they're talking about some plants out there. I'd love it. I've gotta say, if an E85 station opened up here, I would think hard about selling the Seville and buying something else that runs E85.

A Dodge Caravan has a EPA highway mileage rating of 26 with gasoline. With E85, that figure would be roughly 14 MPG. The dollars per mile would be $0.11 with gasoline and $0.20 for E85 using $2.859 per gallon for both fuels. I agree that you use less gasoline but the cost per mile increases with E85.

Isn't there a special engine oil that must be used with E85? Seems like that would make switching between gasoline and E85 difficult on a long trip. I haven't seen E85 in Michigan or Indiana yet.

I do not love the gas prices these days...! I agree that a long term solution must be found but the immediate solution is to build new refineries to ease the capacity constraint.

I wonder if an owner of a foreign hybrid realizes that after 5-6 years, the batteries are shot and it will cost more to replace the batteries than what the vehicle is worth???

[JimD]

People stealing gasoline is only a symptom. The current gas price bump could be seen as a wake-up call to North American motorists (and auto makers) from Katrina.  Maybe that would be too much to hope for.

How will you alter your driving patterns when gasoline is $6.00 or more per gallon (if you can find it)? At what price per gallon would you decline to own a (dino fuel) powered vehicle?

The problem is not a low supply of oil but rather, the US refinery capacity is at 90%+. Environmentalists oppose any construction of refineries....and the silent majority pays the price.

The amount of crude is finite. If demand is not reduced, the price must and will continue to rise (some pundits see $150 per barrel in two to five years). A major player on the demand side is the birth of a Chinese industrial economy.

Old T. Boone Pickens (a long time player in the 'awl' industry) has been one of the choir singing this finite-supply song for many years. Pickens has been wrong a time or two, but not recently.

[KHE]

People stealing gasoline is only a symptom. The current gas price bump could be seen as a wake-up call to North American motorists (and auto makers) from Katrina.  Maybe that would be too much to hope for.

How will you alter your driving patterns when gasoline is $6.00 or more per gallon (if you can find it)? At what price per gallon would you decline to own a (dino fuel) powered vehicle?

The problem is not a low supply of oil but rather, the US refinery capacity is at 90%+. Environmentalists oppose any construction of refineries....and the silent majority pays the price.

The amount of crude is finite. If demand is not reduced, the price must and will continue to rise (some pundits see $150 per barrel in two to five years). A major player on the demand side is the birth of a Chinese industrial economy.

Old T. Boone Pickens (a long time player in the 'awl' industry) has been one of the choir singing this finite-supply song for many years. Pickens has been wrong a time or two, but not recently.

I realize the amount of crude is finite but the "experts" would like everyone to believe that were going to run out in 5 years. The speculators have driven up the price of oil $20 per barrel in the last 6 weeks.

I think it's time China starts oil exploring in their country. We all pay way more in fuel costs than we ever save by having goods manufactured over there...

[bigjayzway]

WOW! Easy guys, I don't do the drive offs!

I am saying let them do it!

I am not going to stop them, and I figure if the theft gets bad enough they will think hard about lowering the prices....like they did with cigarettes!

Maybe I am wrong!

I didn't mean for TED to get the feeling that I meant he was the person in the wrong.

I will shut up now!    

Big Jay

No hard feelings ... I may need you in the future to scout out a p.o.s. beater from

The CaddyShack some day

Like I said before....ANYTIME you need me to go by there I will, and take photos.

Big Jay

[Ranger]

Jason,

Remember that ethanol delivers only 50% of the milage that gasoline does so E85 may not be all it is cracked up to be as you'll have to use twice as much. Plus when E85 is the only game in town I am sure they will drive those prices up as well. Need breeds greed.

[JohnnyG]

The cost of producing ethanol remains significantly higher than the cost of producing fuels from petroleum. The U.S. Government, since 1978, has applied tax incentives intended to make ethanol competitive with gasoline in the motor fuel marketplace. Continued progress with both conventional and advanced ethanol production technologies could someday result in ethanol production costs competitive with petroleum fuels.

Producing ethanol takes more energy to produce than it releases, it is a no-win, feel-good, California type, short sighted solution. OH Yeah, where do you think the extra energy to produce this ethanol comes from? COAL? NOT IN MY BACKYARD! It's NATURAL GAS. So you are already ALL being primed to accept higher natural gas prices for various reasons. Blame it on the "peaking plants" that produced the energy to cover the shortfalls during this past HOT summer. Blame it on whatever you like, but WE still get to pay.

Funny, how quickly we forget. I recall not too long ago, we were being primed to accept higher gasoline prices "in case something might happen" then BAM! Katrina happened, and guess what....we STILL got to pay more. The THEY that are driving up crude prices are indeed the speculators. I'd like to say here "NOT" the oil companies, but these days, who can tell the difference?

Coal is still the only cheap energy alternative that is in abundance here in the US. But what are we doing with it? SENDING IT OVERSEAS! (read China, I think)

[ted tcb]

Marika's original post mentioned "drive offs".

I spoke with the owner of busy Esso station yesterday. The father, mother, and two sons share every shift, essentially having the family run the pumps 24/7.

They earn 2cents per liter, or about 9cents per gallon.

A drive off loss comes directly out of their pockets ... it doen't affect the oil company in any way. Its the very same as stiffing your waitress for the tab, thinking it comes out of the restaurant's pocket.

I think the day is near where every gas pump cashier sits behind bullet proof glass, and demands payment before services are rendered.

I've filled up this way in the past in Florida, and didn't like it. You never know to the penny what a fill up costs, so you end up paying for $40 bucks, but not quite topping up.

I guess the nostalgic gass attendant is a thing of the past.