Jun 21, 2008 12:52 pm US/Central
Gas Station Drive-Offs On The Rise In Minn.
(AP)
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Gas station owner Jaesse Hihi said that's why he's keeping a close eye on customers. When he's suspicious, he asks some customers to prepay. (File)
CBS
Gas station owners across Minnesota know the high price of gas can mean more drive-offs and increase the chance that someone will try to siphon gas from their underground tanks.
Gas station owner Jaesse Hihi said that's why he's keeping a close eye on customers. When he's suspicious, he asks some customers to prepay.
"We're watching everything right now," Hihi said, adding that so far his Hi-Hi Market in Lakeville hasn't had many problems because employees are alert.
But tougher state laws and increased surveillance at service stations haven't stopped desperate drivers from stealing gas elsewhere these days, with gas prices hovering around $4 a gallon.
"It's been a chronic problem, but when gas prices go up it only gets worse," said Lance Klatt, executive director of the Minnesota Service Station Association.
Klatt said he hears about the drive-offs in which stations are able to use valid license plates to track down a driver, and those number about 40 a week in Minnesota.
But then there's the thieves who use stolen license plates to avoid detection. It happened recently in Oakdale when a man driving a Buick used plates belonging to a Lincoln Navigator.
The man would have gotten away if a police officer hadn't been doing routine registration checks. He was caught, given a citation for using plates not registered to the car, and eventually he arranged to pay for the gas.
"When gas hit $3.50 a gallon, that is what I called launch time," said David Bellows, chief deputy of the Dakota County Sheriff's department.
The department counted just one drive-off complaint last year. There have been 14 so far this year. "It just seemed, we started to get more and more of these drive-off complaints," Bellows said.
In Lakeville, there were 21 reports of drive-offs at the pump from April to May, Lakeville Police Chief Tom Vonhof said. He said 67 drive-offs were reported in all of 2007.
At a Marathon station in Lakeville, clerk Bryan Jensen at one time he was seeing one drive-off every month. Things have gotten better since the store owners programmed the farthest pumps to be prepay only.
Turning all the pumps into prepay isn't an option yet because of the inconvenience to customers, he said.
"We get a lot of honest people here," Jensen said. "There are just a few bad apples."
Drive-offs aren't the only problem, however. Someone stole gas worth nearly $2,000 -- that's about 500 gallons -- by siphoning it from an underground tank at a St. Paul gas station.
It's happened around the country, with some auto mechanics reporting more customers coming in with pierced fuel tanks.
The National Association of Convenience Stores reports that service stations lost about $134 million in 2007 due to gasoline theft. The trade group said the number of drive-offs would be higher if so many stations didn't require drivers to pay before fueling.
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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