New way to steal gas

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Robin Cox

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It is going on around here, the paper said there were 6 incidents in the area in the past week. They drill a hole in your gas tank and drain it out.
 
well it's not too new of a way, but it will become more popular since now they have advertised how it can be done!
 
That and all the "smart" people went out and got a locking fuel cap.



Remember, locking your car doors will not prevent a brick from breaking your glass. Putting on a locking gas cap will not keep your gas from getting stolen. Installing an alarm will not prevent your vehicle from getting stolen.





Tom
 
I did get a locking gas cap before the Dallas meet due to all the theiving that was going on in Texas after those hurricanes but my thinking was, if they are going to try at least it will slow them down some. But, you are right Caymen, a thief that wants it bad enough will find a means of getting it. :)
 
But, you are right Caymen, a thief that wants it bad enough will find a means of getting it.:)



The neighborhod I grew up in you would hzve to leave your doors unlocked. If you didn't, they would break the window to look in the glovebox and trunk. It was cheaper to let them open the door and look that replacing the broken glass.



My uncle had an old Chevy dump truck he used in his business. It had the dual side saddle gas tanks. He was getting gas stolen all the time. So, he put water in on tank and parked it so the thief would hide behind the truck to steal the gas from that tank. Set the thief up. He had enough gas in it to make it smell like gas.



Sure enough, the cam was gone and the tank was dry...that guy stole a tank full of water.



The gas no longer came up missing. The thieving stopped at his place.



I would much rather have gas stolen than a hole drilled in the tank.





Tom
 
is there a way to put a cover over the tank. to prevent them form drilling it? like a peice of metal. if gas hits $5.00. i doing some welding. and i tought the new vehlies had something inside that kept people form useing hoses to drain tanks. i know my wife`s new 08 altima you can`t use a hose because i tried before it went back to the dealer for seivce thay said they fill the tank so i tought i would make out sending it up there with very little gas dum me we just filled the car up a couple of day before then . so that sucked.
 
Just about every vehicle sold in the last 10 years has an anti-syphon feature built in to it. I tried to syphon from the ST once and found it impossible. Hopefully thieves will attack the bigger trucks and SUV's first since they have bigger gas tanks.
 
The other new trick is, they steal your license plate, go to a gas station, steal the gas, then remove the stolen plate...



It is only going to get worse....
 
geeze now we have to weld on the license plates somehow?!!! I'm sure it will get worse!

this is a very ugly issue coming!
 
I had the tank drilled on a ford ranger that I drove at work. The gas that they didn't steal they just let drain onto the ground. Cost to replace the tank was very near $1000.00. My employer paid for the repairs and was not happy about it to say the least. I being the evil person I am would have not been disapointed to have found the theif burned to death under that little truck. He would have had to splashed gas all over him self. idiots !:angry:
 
Caymen said:
Remember, locking your car doors will not prevent a brick from breaking your glass. Putting on a locking gas cap will not keep your gas from getting stolen. Installing an alarm will not prevent your vehicle from getting stolen.



Nope, you are right, none of those can 100% prevent. But all of them will deter.



Locking the doors will reduce the liklihood that your car get rifled through by someone seeing a "crime of opportunity" as well as make it a less favorable car to a theif then one that is locked.



A locking gas cap will deter the thief with a siphon, likely making him or her target cars without a locking cap instead.



An alarm in car will deter the unsophisticated car thief.



Prevention is never 100%, but deterence can help a lot.



It's like the old joke:



Two guys are in the woods camping, and they suddenly see a bear. The one guy starts putting on his sneakers, and the other guy is like, "Are you crazy? You can't outrun a bear." And the one guy says, "I only have to outrun you."



The locking gas cap and the other deterence you mentioned are like the fast sneakers...they may not make you completely safe and free from being a target, but they do make you a more difficult target than the "other guy".



TJR
 
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I wanted to siphon the gas out of y ST before the ins. company took it. My FIL said the only way to get it out would be to cut the filler neck. I don't really think a locking cap really does much additional protection.



Too bad Ford doesn't put a latching cover on, like many cars nowadays.
 
Too bad Ford doesn't put a latching cover on, like many cars nowadays.



That still will not stop someone from drilling a hole in your tank.



If thieves do not think twice about stealing a cat. converter that is worth 20 bucks, or so, at a yard, drilling a hole in the tank is simply too easy for a larger score.





Tom
 
On the news the other night, there was a report of gas being stolen from a station by a man with a large cargo trailer (~25-30') and a big dodge dually. The guy would pull in and park on top of the tank tops, then siphon the gas out of the tanks into a large tank inside his trailer. He was getting approx 5000 gallons a pop and they know of at least 2 stations that were hit.



Ouch.



Gerry
 
I figure no matter what we try to do to prevent someone from stealing our stuff, there is going to always be someone out there that will do whatever they need to do to get what they want.



I expect the crime to go way up now that gas prices, unimployment and everything else is on the rise. And I'm prepared to take whatever measures it takes to try to stop them without the help of the police.
 
He was getting approx 5000 gallons a pop



I saw the same story, and it did say 5000 gallons, but that's 35000 lbs of gas! I'll believe 500(3500 lbs), which would be about right for that size trailer. :wacko:



Either way, it was a unique way of stealing the gas. Not saying it's right to do so, but some theives do do come up with some different ways for pulling off a heist. :eek:
 
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