What/Where/When
People stealing petrol is on the rise, most of the reports I see are in the USA but we’ll probably see a few of these here in Australia as well as the whole fossil fuels / war effects / EV scenario plays out here and bowser prices keep climbing. Some of the reports out of the States seem like they might be older, but there’s no denying that a few are extremely recent and in response to the petrol price hikes which are partly induced by the world fuel price and partly created by petrol distributor/suppliers who see an opportunity for some price scalping and so are taking it.
Tactics have changed, there was a report of someone with “a device” that basically unlocked petrol bowsers at a service station and bypassed the console, and anyone that drove in (this was at night / early AM and the servo was closed) got a free fill-up so the operator lost USD$1,600 or so worth of fuel.
Another tactic used for smaller thefts was drilling a hole directly in the petrol tank of a car parked outside homes or wherever, and draining what they could into a jerry can. This one is probably the lowest of the low because someone else (the victim) now a) has no way to get to work and b) a repair bill to get the tank repaired or replaced.
I was surprised I didn’t see more tanker hijackings and underground tank pumping exploits but I’m sure they’re still to come.
It’s just a matter of time here too, and of course it goes without saying that petrol is just one item that the price of is climbing climbing, and thus become attractive targets for theft.
Hehehe moment:
Typed “petrol theft” into the search engine and the first (paid advertising, too) thing that showed up was an ad for “fuel additives.”
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