This is getting absurd: customized gas-stealing truck owner nabbed
Well, we can say that he's got ingenuity and some shop skills, at least.
A less-than-honest man in Orlando, Florida rigged up his Ford pickup truck to hide an 800 gallon tank that he used to steal gas from station pumps and then resell the ever-more-valuable fuel. The man was caught Tuesday after people at a Hess station noticed he was taking a really long time to fill up his vehicle. As our friends at Autoblog pointed out, the real freaky part of this (especially if you're a struggling station owner) is that, "the man also had a key that disabled pump meters, detectives said."
An Orange County sheriff commander told area TV station Local6 that the custom job had no redeeming value: "It is set up for one use only, which is to steal fuel and redistribute it illegally," he said. It's likely that the man was part of a larger crime ring. Maybe this is the kind of thing that LA police should be looking for. Any guesses as to what surprise $4/gallons of gas will bring us next? Is reducing consumption really that difficult for some people, or is is just that stealing gas is just the hip thing to do these days?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
vfx 1:28PM (6/19/2008)
Ha Ha.
Those of us who don't live in the area might be amused by the Local6 page's Top Stories.
Three alligator stories including one flipping over an airplane. :)
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Haudy Kazemi 10:40PM (6/19/2008)
I wager it'd be quite a bit harder to make off with the 'fuel' in all electric vehicles. (And too time consuming as well.)
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Manu Sharma 5:17PM (6/20/2008)
This sounds like a scene straight out from a 2006 BBC documentary: "IF...the Oil Runs Out". Set in 2016, it shows what kind of things to expect if oil prices reach $4/gallon.
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=D8C2EA2D80A326F7
The funny thing is, it's only 2008 and we've already reached the $4/gallon and $100 / barrel oil prices shown in the documentary. Other predictions: more widespread oil thefts, long queues at petrol pumps, skyrocketing food and grocery prices, unemployment, people getting angry and general fist fights breaking out at the slightest provocation.
Oh, and it shows the US government permitting oil drilling in Alaska. But not finding any.
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