People are Stealing our Gas!

Not sure which forum to put this in, so I put it here. I'm not sure if this has heppened elsewhere... but in Colroado Springs, Gas theft has become a very serious problem. I'm not saying filling the car up at the station and just driving off... I mean people are sticking house down peoples tanks and siphoning (spelling?) out gas. At this point, people are actually somehow locking up their gas tanks. BUt did this stop it? Nope... cars have been found that have drill holes, where people drilled holes in te tank to siphon the gas. Things are getting out of control, and with the rising of gas prices in the next few days, it culd get even worse. Luckily, we haven't had anything taken yet, and hopefully it doesn't happen. Has this happened in any of your cities? If they have... what is your town doing to fix it? Other than just cops patrolling around parked cars... nothing is really being done here.

Have you tried talking with your neighbors, and starting an active neighborhood watch program?

It's only been happening in the downtown area of Colorado Springs... no "attacks" around our area... so were not too worried... plus were in a gated community. But this is just crazy. People stealing gas? Has any of this happened where you are at?

I thought about going into business selling siphons to make some quick cash

But seriously folks... i have been talking extra precautions to keep the gas in my tank safe from potential thieves (if you consider shutting the garage door for once a precaution). You can't be too careful in a situation like this.

yeah theres a gas station near us that says they're out of regular gas and only ultra is left (which is the most expensive, its like $4 a gallon there) but the news people investigated and were able to get 6 gallons off it, which cost them like $3 a gallon. The state police are going to investigate as well, probably close the place down.

this hasnt happend wher i live at ( a suburb of Omaha NE) but if it does start happening here il guess ill just sit on the trunk of my car with my shot gun.

Yes there has been reports of this. Some people go into the areas of Long-term parking at airports and siphon the gas from those cars. I could probly go around in my neighbor hood tonight and easily 10 gallons of gas from a few cars that are parked outside. Not hard to do, and unless you have deterrants like driveway lights, night patrols, or a nieghborhood watch there isn't much you can do.

one of the downsides of high gas prices

My neighbour has a custom fuel port on his pick-up that locks, and someone came along and pried it open the other night to rip off his gas.

This was in a fairly busy area right in front of our apartment building.

The sad part of this is that the damage to his vehicle will cost more than the value of the gas that the was stolen. Double wammy.................

My husband works in a dealership in Daytona, and last night he reported to me that they sold out of locking gas caps, and they can't get more at the moment - they are on backorder.

My truck has a locking gas cover. I would think more cars would have something like that.

Thats what my Honda has, I have to unlock the cover from inside the vehicle. I have a model from the early 90's, you'd think this would have caught on....

I used to won an 81 VW Siracco and there was no fuel access flap like almost all cars have now, and one of the first things I had to buy was a locking gas cap, also had a breakaway lid that prevented peiople from prying it off.

Much easier to just drill a hole and hold a bucket underneat the car

Drilling a hole in the tank killed two mechanincs in Wisconsin. They were working on a car, something was wrong with the tank or something, so they were going to drain it... A Spark from the drill ignited the gas... and caused a big explosion from other gases and oils in the shop... wasn't pretty.

So, it started, when thew price is high, and even more if stations ran out of it; it will happen more and more.
So buy yourself good locks for the fuel tanks then.
And don't be surprised to find this in the morning.
Selling car gets you rid of the worry, but you have to get one more pair of bike tyres then (Who said anything about John Titor?)

Originally posted by DarkHelmet
Drilling a hole in the tank killed two mechanincs in Wisconsin. They were working on a car, something was wrong with the tank or something, so they were going to drain it... A Spark from the drill ignited the gas... and caused a big explosion from other gases and oils in the shop... wasn't pretty.

Hogwash, most gas tanks have a valve, or plug on the tank for draining. and how can the gas explode when there is no oxidizer?

Well, that's how it was reported in the paper and reported on the local news. They said they were drilling into the tank and a spark ignited the fuel. Obviously the two died and could not give there personal accounts on what happend, and I'm assuming this is what was guessed to have happened. It may be completely wrong. I have no idea... I'm just going off of what they said.

I live in wisconsin and I never heard of it. I have also replaced the gas tank on my car and know how you drain the gas (at least for VWs) you start by siphoning out as much as you can with a hose.. the ol tube and suck method works. Then you remove the drain plug, or hose to get some more, and then you can drop the tank pull it out and drain the rest.

Only some complete moron mechanic who wanted to ruin a tank would drill while performing repairs

I would ahve to see the article beofre I belived it

I have searched for it and found nothing. I lived there in 97-98, so that may be the reason. I'm not very educated wen it comes to car repairs and such, so I only posted what I heard. If it's that unbelievable, then maybe it is fale, and we should just drop it right there. Sorry if it is false.