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Rising costs fuelling gas theft

SIRI AGRELL

From Friday's Globe and Mail

Latest comment posted at 7:25 AM EST 05/07/08

More people are resorting to "gas-and-dash" thefts and other extreme measures to contend with the high price of petrol ...Read the full article

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  1. BobtheBaptist Saves from Who'sthethief, Canada writes: So who is the thief here? Is it the oil cartels charging almost 7 times what oil costs to get out of the ground or is it their victims who are stealing gas to be able to afford to drive their vehicles that they were suckered into buying? The commodity market system is rotten to the core folks and the monsters are in charge of our world.
  2. Gogh Forit from Canada writes: Bob the B: This is no place for comparing who the worse criminal is. While I'm sure that we could agree on a couple of points as to who is responsible for the gross increases in fuel, this story deals more with protecting the station owners and their employees.

    I've got a solution to this. Steal gas and you automatically forfeit the vehicle you used to commit the crime. If that were implemented, you'd see the incidence of this offense reduced significantly.

    However Bob the B, I do find that there is an ever increasing effort by government and industry to reduce both the mobility and privacy of people in Canada and the U.S.
    On a global scale I believe that a power shift in now occurring. From the West to the East and this will serve to isolate people rather than bring them together. This is much in the writing of Eric Blair aka George Orwell that is all too accurate.
  3. Steve Not an Alberta Redneck from Calgary, Canada writes: The US bible belt, home of al that is 'good' and 'pure' in the world had this problem more than 2 decades ago. Its only now that this trend has reached us heathens in Canada.
  4. scamp the from Canada writes:
    ANSWER: require payment first. It's not rocket science.
  5. Rudy Wiebe from NIVERVILLE, Canada writes: The funnny thing I find is that New Jersey has 88 year old employees working for them. This is a viscious trend and all I suggest to employees is to take down the license plate of the person they are trying to catch and let the police do the work. It does not pay to try and catch them yousself.
  6. Piltdown Man from Canada writes: 'Hummer ownership, people who eat those prewrapped sandwiches, Britney Spears entering the restroom without her shoes.'

    surely the reporter could have come up with a better list of egregious acts than this - ok maybe the hummer - but what about bodily displays, sex, drugs, big gulps and the like
  7. Real Name from Toronto, Canada writes: BobtheBaptist Saves from Who'sthethief, Canada writes: So who is the thief here? Is it the oil cartels charging almost 7 times what oil costs to get out of the ground or is it their victims who are stealing gas to be able to afford to drive their vehicles that they were suckered into buying? The commodity market system is rotten to the core folks and the monsters are in charge of our world.

    ___________________________________________________________

    They are both thiefs.
  8. Unknown User! from Canada writes: scamp the from Canada writes:
    ANSWER: require payment first. It's not rocket science.

    ==============

    seriously. Problem solved.
  9. Anger Equals Danger from Canada writes: Similar incidents have been reported across the country as gas prices climb well above $1 a litre.
    * * * *
    When was this article written, last summer??? Gas has been well over a $1 a litre for about a year now. We are currently at $1.52.
  10. Richard Porteous from Vancouver, Canada writes: I am still proud to say that I have never once spend a single cent on gas
  11. Richard Porteous from Vancouver, Canada writes: *spent
  12. Loudan Bellicose from Canada writes: Richard P. , have you ever purchased anything?
    You are a simple man.
  13. NOTAFAN OFTHEFEDS from Canada writes: I have to steal gas from three civics just to fill my Yukon!
  14. Philosopher Dog from Toronto, Canada writes: I have a solution: Make drivers pay the real cost of gasoline! That is, make them pay the health costs to everyone that can't breathe the air, and the environmental costs that are ruining the planet. Sure oil companies are ripping people off, but drivers are still not paying a small fraction of the real cost of driving. Let's add in the cost of roads, the loss of farmland, the destruction of communities, the noise, filth and ugliness, just to start the list. You are implicated if you drive. Also, our taxes are subsidizing this industry to the hilt. You are not paying a small fraction of the real cost. That's for certain. So, let's stop complaining and start putting the price up to where it should be so that we can move past this nightmare of the personal fossil fuel car and open the way for some serious innovation that will leave some semblance of a world for tomorrow's generations.
  15. Rusty Waters from Canada writes: Hopefully something good will come out of this. Maybe the oil companies will use more full service stations. Nothing worst than getting gasoline all over your hands, while standing in freezing rain and ice at those self service stations. Theft of gasoline is even a more serious problem around construction sites, and on apartment parking lots. Gasoline in my town is $1.52 a liter...$6.84 a gallon. People shoud ensure they have locks on their vehicle's gas tanks and their sheds and garage are locked up. Gasoline theft could become as profitable as pushing drugs.
  16. Smokezz from Southern Ontario from Canada writes: 4th article in 2 weeks about this. Slow news month? Or just a dramatic topic. You be the judge.
  17. B Johnson from Canada writes: Ultramar is very much responsible for the incident in Nova Scotia that required a man to have surgery on his ankle. Ultramar demands that their clerks pay back the losses from 'gas n dash' from their pay checks. All of the clerks are required to multi-task - work behind the convenience store counter, keep the coffee machines going, clean bathrooms and the premises and watch the pumps.

    Last year a young lady in Halifax was charged for a gas n dash incident from her paycheck and her parents made a lot of noise about it. I don't know what became of it other than she quit her job, but that's a big part of the problem. Pay before you pump makes a lot more sense. They accept debit and credit cards right at the pump.

    Philosopher Dog from Toronto
    I agree with your post. Drivers must take some responsibility for their lifestyle choices too. Every day I see most cars on the highway with only one driver. Mall parking lots are full to the brim with cars that are driven by one person. It's time to raise the prices higher and higher until people take personal responsibility for their carbon footprints. Not for the benefit of the oil companies either, but a surtax (carbon tax) that far exceeds what Dion is calling for. Use the monies to develop eco friendly sources of energy like wind and solar energy. Enough is enough. The ride is over folks and it's time to disembark.
  18. The graying pundit from Ottawa, Canada writes: Don't see why gas and dash should be a problem. There are sooooo many ways to defeat this. The newsworthy element is that even though gasoline retailers have been dealing with this, on and off, for 30 years and they have collectively not to implement a few very simple technological fixes that would totally eliminate this problem. It is just simple economics, I guess. Not a big enough problem to justify spending the cash that would put and end to this problem. If the owners and retailers are not willing to spend a few preventative dollars, we need to tell the kids who work at the PetroCans and Essos, Sunoco, and Shell of the world not to be heros. If somebody wants to rip off the station, let them go and just call the cops.
  19. Alfons Materna from Dogs Nest, Canada writes: 'Jazz drummer Charlie Rice, 88, who played alongside John Coltrane and Chet Baker, was one of 12 New Jersey government employees recently indicted on charges of stealing gas from government cars to fuel their own, the Philadelphia Daily News reported.'

    Is gas so expensive in the U.S. that people must work at age 88?
  20. Cosmo Spacely from Canada writes: Smith & Wesson can solve the problem in a few short seconds, and make sure there is not a repeat offence.
  21. Timber Wolf from Richmond, BC, Canada writes: No matter how you try to combat this, you're screwed. I'm seriously contemplating ditching my truck for a motorcycle---heck the models I test rode yesterday get around 50mpg---yet when you look at how my insurance costs would skyrocket, nothing would accrue from the fuel savings; and before anyone says this results from the fact that motorcycles are dangerous, STFU! This is what happens when sanctamonious hypocritical small car drivers complain that they can't see motorbikes on the road while they are driving their little cars.

    To all those who smugly declare that they use transit and don't rely on fossil fuels to go to work, get over yourselves! Not everyone has the luxury of taking transit to work.
  22. John Brown from Maritimes, Canada writes: Timber Wolf you make some very good points. The eco-nuts who complain about the use of fossil fuels are those same fruitcakes who talk about using transit and just how do they think those gems are powered? Then the looney toon who thinks we who rely on fossil fuels don't pay enough, just how much of the cost of fuel do they think is taxed? Further more, why should we pay the cost of medicare and ecology clean up when there are just as many polluters out there choking the environment like the cattle farmers raising large herds whose methane expulsions have been proven in studies to affect our ozone. There is just no pleasing everybody, this article is about rising fuel thefts in and around the nation and what to do about it and as one wise poster noted,pay before you pump!
  23. REV eighteenseventeen from Canada writes: Cosmo Spacely from Canada writes: Smith & Wesson can solve the problem in a few short seconds, and make sure there is not a repeat offence. _____________________________________________________ You don't shoot someone for a gas and dash. Why would you expect someone behind a till to protect some multibillion dollar shell corporation's interest with a gun when they are making close to minimum wage, for a few measely litres of gas. Let em go. Now if it is a self defense issue that is life threatening, well then Smith & Wesson may be in order. Ground your rationale Cosmo.
  24. Dick Garneau from Canada writes: 'Gas and Dash' is easily solved by prepay! 'Hose and Go' is also easily solved with locking gas caps.

    .
  25. Brent Wilkins from Canada writes: Locking gas caps will not help. Theieves are now just drilling a hole in the tank and letting the gas drip into a bucket. I would rather let someone take a bit of gas than have to replace a gas tank or have to repair a gas cap that has been pried off.
  26. Lowen Wrainger from Canada writes: This reminds me of the time, long ago (You know, the hitch-hiking 60's days), when pick-up trucks had bumper stickers that read, 'Gas or *ss, nobody rides for free!' Well, some cars had them too! Somebody is always taking everybody for a ride!
  27. SusieQ 321 from NoWhereVille, Canada writes: I haven't used a pump in the US that didn't require prepay in years.... and many of them now require you to enter in a zip code for the added security of helping prevent a credit card theft... since I am CDN and don't have a zip code I generally have to go inside, give the clerk my card and in some cases prove that if the card doesn't run through I have other means of paying ie cash.... in talking to the clerks at the stores it is humorous and sad that there worry is the card given won't work and the patron will do a gas and dash having stolen someone's card from somewhere else...
  28. MR. oz from Canada writes: I heard some people say that the biggest thieves are the oil companies.
    personally I think they are right!
  29. stand up mimi from Vancouver, Canada writes: "Jazz drummer Charlie Rice, 88, who played alongside John Coltrane and Chet Baker, was one of 12 New Jersey government employees recently indicted on charges of stealing gas from government cars to fuel their own..."

    This is a legendary jazz drummer, who was working as a gas station attendant at the age of 88. Something went wrong somewhere.
  30. Richard Hawrelak from Sarnia, Canada writes: Growing up in Sheep Tracks, Alberta during WWII was a time of gas rationing. Farmers got a good deal, the common town folk were severly rationed. Gasoline theft was quite common, especially for the farmers who had few checks and balances around their gas tanks out on the back forty. And so, the government controllers added a coloring agent to the farmers gas. The gas was known as purple gas because when burned it gave off a purple smoke. Anyone caught driving on the road with a purple vapor trail was charged with theft. As teenagers, we swiped gas alright, but only did our joy riding at night time. As fortunes would have it, we would swipe the car of a friend to do our galavanting. Next day, the father who owned the car would drive off to work with a purple vapor trail. He'd get charged and then the fun would begin ... sigh ...
  31. A Cynic from Canada writes: Gawd, Mimi, read the sentence you just posted. Charlie Rice works (worked?) for the New Jersey government, not a gas station.

    Paying before you gas up doesn't solve all the problems, but it does take away some of the risk to attendants. It's inconvenient, but I like it.

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