What's to stop people from stealing petrol?

SuperInfinity

It seems like a very easy crime with a very high amount to save from it. So why don't people do it much more?

1) Just before you come to a station, somehow make it impossible for your number plate to be read. Maybe cellotape a bit of card over it, you might even be able to have printed letters on it to make it look legit. Nobody will notice much less do anything in the 15 metres from the time you do this to the time you hit the petrol station region.

2) Wear some kind of hoodie and a disguise to cover your face. It can be any freaky kind of disguise you like as you won't even be going into a shop, dress as member of the opposite gender if you like.

3) Take your petrol as a normal every-day paying citizen, then bolt out of there.

What's going to happen? 20 police cars dispatched after you immediately? Yeah right. But even then they wouldn't be able to catch you if you're using a generic-looking car.

Cypher_sounds

Your just a really bored late night Petrol Station worker right?

rossie1977

its a huge problem along the border

what i don't understand is why the pumps cannot be locked until first payment is made in the store

tommyhaas

If your gona wear a hoodie, cover your face and your car reg, you may aswell hold up the place while your at it

Tiny Explosions

Do it then!.....:rolleyes:

KeithM89_old

Speaking from years of experience working in a petrol statiom, you dont even have to do that. Almost all drive-offs are never even investigated by the police

The Floyd p

Do it.

Just make sure you wear this hoodie and hat combo

sesna

Never can understand why in Ireland you fill up with petrol first, and then go into the shop to pay for it. In alot of places I have driven in the US, you pay for the amount you want first, and then it counts down when you are putting the petrol in.

Can especially not understand this in border areas where drive-offs are much more common.

LookBehindYou

Most people are honest.

mink_man

The OP is the sort of person who runs the country...i worry..

D_murph

rossie1977 wrote: »

its a huge problem along the border

what i don't understand is why the pumps cannot be locked until first payment is made in the store

They can. I have had to prepay a few times, mostly by night but a few weeks ago, one of the pumps at the petrol station in Little Island in Cork was a prepay. I didnt notice the sign until after I looked back up at the machine to see why it wasnt pumping.

Makes sense to have it that way by night but not at 2 in the day and on only the one pump from what I could see .

laugh

I always thought a triangular rotating number plate would be cool, three different plates to choose from.

Yakult

Alot of local pumps around here were getting robbed blindly, so to stop this you now gotta pay before you pump. Good idea.

They have camera's pointing at every pump and when you steal it they take the immage of you filling with the reg and put them up on the shop. Robbing petrol is something low life scumbags do.

NoHornJan

laugh wrote: »

I always thought a triangular rotating number plate would be cool, three different plates to choose from.

Yeh! Great for Toll Plazas and Speed Traps also...:D

Tea_Bag

its easy enough. i have a friend who's done it a few times, though not intentionally, paying just wasnt a priority at the time...... women...

mikemac

Well as a motorcyclist, the staff would lock the pump until you take off your helmet.
Fair enough I suppose.
Not everywhere does but if they don't know me it's nearly always done.

So they lock the pump for someone with a helmet but I could wear a hoodie and the staff would not?

A right nuisance when you wear glasses and it's raining as you have to take them out first and they'll get wet, take off your helmet and then do it all in reverse.
Plus you mightn't get your glasses on comfortably again.

D_murph

feelingstressed wrote: »

Well as a motorcyclist, the staff would lock the pump until you take off your helmet.
Fair enough I suppose.
Not everywhere does but if they don't know me it's nearly always done.

So they lock the pump for someone with a helmet but I could wear a hoodie and the staff would not?

A right nuisance when you wear glasses and it's raining as you have to take them out first and they'll get wet, take off your helmet and then do it all in reverse.
Plus you mightn't get your glasses on comfortably again.

Hmm, I wonder how the Stig manages so. Come to think of it, how do they leave him in the post office or the bank either :D?

marco_polo

rossie1977 wrote: »

its a huge problem along the border

what i don't understand is why the pumps cannot be locked until first payment is made in the store

It is because most people actually pay for their petrol and don't know exactly how much it will cost them to fill up for the week

epgc3fyqirnbsx

Worked as a fuel injection technician for many years
People would often do runners. My boss was a legend, I was out smoking and chatting to him one evening while this car with an english reg was filling itself then tore off without paying. We hopped into his car and followed them down the road and called the cops who waited for them coming into town (i'm about 10 mins outside). Turns out that they were travellers but the cops stopped them, the biss squared up and they made a whole joke about it like they forgot and payed up.

had they not there was damn all we could do about it, a civil case with an english crowd, no chance

SuperInfinity

R_H_C_P wrote: »

Robbing petrol is something low life scumbags do.

I think that's a bit harsh in fairness. Robbing old ladies who can't defend themselves or pushing drugs on teens is something low life scumbags do. I hardly think that driving away with a necessary commodity because a petrol station couldn't be bothered to secure it rises to the same level.

I'm not saying it's okay to do it or anything but if people just leave free money around people are bound to take it. I wouldn't do it in my position, but if you've ever had to try to survive in the modern world with a shoe-string budget then maybe you'd think differently about people trying to get by.... maybe you should keep the "low life scumbags" remark for the likes of Ivor Callely and remember not everyone is well off enough to get into lofty discussions on the ethics of others and look down their noses at them.

beks101

SuperInfinity wrote: »

I think that's a bit harsh in fairness. Robbing old ladies who can't defend themselves or pushing drugs on teens is something low life scumbags do. I hardly think that driving away with a necessary commodity because a petrol station couldn't be bothered to secure it rises to the same level.

I'm not saying it's okay to do it or anything but if people just leave free money around people are bound to take it. I wouldn't do it in my position, but if you've ever had to try to survive in the modern world with a shoe-string budget then maybe you'd think differently about people trying to get by.... maybe you should keep the "low life scumbags" remark for the likes of Ivor Callely and remember not everyone is well off enough to get into lofty discussions on the ethics of others and look down their noses at them.

Eh, no. Robbing anything is something low life scumbags do, be it little old ladies or petrol pumps. Recession or no recession.

It's not 'free money' anymore than a stack of newspapers in front of a counter or a load of products on a supermarket shelf is.

If you can't afford the cost of petrol, don't drive a car.

What happens if you put in 25 by mistake and you only have 20. What would happen then?

YFlyer

Mak_United wrote: »

What happens if you put in 25 by mistake and you only have 20. What would happen then?

You will have to work a night shift there turning away people who be looking for a bottle of vino.

ya-ba-da-ba-doo

Mak_United wrote: »

What happens if you put in 25 by mistake and you only have 20. What would happen then?

Think they make you dress up as the garage mascot and wave at all the cars driving by. A fiver would get you around a half an hour of this, if I remember correctly..

tony1kenobi

Mak_United wrote: »

What happens if you put in 25 by mistake and you only have 20. What would happen then?

Rachel Attractive Dude and his boss will f*ck your sh*t up.

epgc3fyqirnbsx

tony1kenobi wrote: »

SlasherMcGurk and his boss will f*ck your sh*t up.

you know it :cool:

Dj Stiggie

To be fair OP, there are many things that could be stolen, a lot of the time with less risk, that aren't.

Usually people's morals stop them. The other day I was queing to buy some stuff and I had to grab something from my bag. I realised that I could slip all the smaller stuff into my bag without anyone noticing, and not arouse suspicion because I was still buying several other things, but I didn't.

I was also recently at a florist who had locked the shop but left plants outside. Rather than wait 5mins for the shop to re-open and buy flowers I could have just knicked a pot plant. I was in Italy, about to get the train out of the city so even I was seen I would have been long gone but I waited.

Disclaimer/tl:dr: Fcuk it, its AH, lets suck some diesel!

ldxo15wus6fpgm

Rachel Attractive Dude wrote: »

Worked as a fuel injection technician for many years.

I lol'd. I've a friend who gets stick for working on the pumps, must find out if he knows the proper job title!

Mackman

Morality?

SuperInfinity

beks101 wrote: »

Eh, no. Robbing anything is something low life scumbags do, be it little old ladies or petrol pumps. Recession or no recession..

Eh, yes. A low life scumbag is the worst type of person there is. Not someone who makes off with something that isn't theirs.

Low life scumbags are people who go around committing knife-crime, druglords and terrorists and armed robbery, pushing drugs, that sort of thing. NOT a person involved in petty theft and shoplifting.

I'm sure at some point in your life you must have viewed copyright material on your computer without it being your property, does that make you a "low life scumbag"?

The idea that robbing something is inherently wrong in all instances is a corperate idea. Congrats on getting sucked into it.

I'm NOT trying to say it's not wrong to do it or those people shouldn't be ashamed of themselves, just that the hyperbole and run-away exaggeration seen on the internet sometimes seems a bit overboard. I wouldn't call someone a scumbag unless they did something EXTREMELY horrible, like destroyed someone else forever.

Zillah

You realise that a very great many kinds of crimes are very easy to get away with, right? The fact that you're unlikely to get caught is not considered a good reason to commit those crimes.

cournioni

Happens here all of the time. Then they speed across the border and get away with it. You're right, whats to stop people from doing it?

thebman

sesna wrote: »

Never can understand why in Ireland you fill up with petrol first, and then go into the shop to pay for it. In alot of places I have driven in the US, you pay for the amount you want first, and then it counts down when you are putting the petrol in.

Can especially not understand this in border areas where drive-offs are much more common.

Probably because the price goes up everyday and its impossible to know how much you'd need to buy :P

Down the country 40 euro fills my tank, in Dublin it takes 50 euro.

ectoraige

I couldn't decide between "Chuck Norris" and "Yore Ma"; in the end, I went with neither.

ciagr297

cause if i am going to have a criminal record i want it to be for something worthwhile
stealing a tank of petrol doesn't really sound worth it tbh

George Orwell 1982

R_H_C_P wrote: »

Robbing petrol is something low life scumbags do.

Crime is only a left-handed form of human endeavor.

Boskowski

Look, here's a wisdom I gonna pass down to you from my grandmother (may she rest in peace).

If you ever going to commit a crime with a significant risk involved it should better be worth it.

Are you going to risk a record over 50 quid for petrol? That sounds just stupid tbh.

SuperInfinity

SuperInfinity wrote: »

I think that's a bit harsh in fairness. Robbing old ladies who can't defend themselves or pushing drugs on teens is something low life scumbags do. I hardly think that driving away with a necessary commodity because a petrol station couldn't be bothered to secure it rises to the same level.

I'm not saying it's okay to do it or anything but if people just leave free money around people are bound to take it. I wouldn't do it in my position, but if you've ever had to try to survive in the modern world with a shoe-string budget then maybe you'd think differently about people trying to get by.... maybe you should keep the "low life scumbags" remark for the likes of Ivor Callely and remember not everyone is well off enough to get into lofty discussions on the ethics of others and look down their noses at them.

Plenty of people are surviving on a shoe string budget and don't resort to stealing. Here's an idea, what about just not having a car if you can't afford to run it? Nobody who can afford to buy a car and maintain it can be that hard up.

ejmaztec

Amelia Yellow Junkie wrote: »

Plenty of people are surviving on a shoe string budget and don't resort to stealing. Here's an idea, what about just not having a car if you can't afford to run it? Nobody who can afford to buy a car and maintain it can be that hard up.

But they're the ones who think that stealing is wrong. Some people don't give a sh1t.

jester77

rossie1977 wrote: »

its a huge problem along the border

Why is that? Or is it because Cavan is along the border?

Capt'n Midnight

On the continent you can be in the arse end of nowhere and still find empty petrol stations that run 24/7 because you can put credit cards or notes into the machine.

gu10

in every 20 litres of petrol there is actually a nano tech remote detonator that goes off once you leave the premesis and it hasn't been disabled by the shop assistant - a bit like those tags on clothes.

but they are expensive so for now its every 20 litres, soon it will be every 10. so when you are stealing petrol, make sure to take less than 10 litres to be sure. because the pump won't dispense the detonator before that much goes in.

unused detonators are captured by the fuel filters and decay in about 30 minutes. as such very few of them have actually been recovered from petrol tanks.

when a stolen car appears to be burnt by the thieves and left abandoned it was actually the detonator that went off because they pushed their luck by stealing the petrol as well.

Motley Crue

SuperInfinity wrote: »

It seems like a very easy crime with a very high amount to save from it. So why don't people do it much more?

As some people have mentioned before, it tends to be a huge problem on the Northern border, where the Irish police won't follow a car into the North because they have no jurisdiction.

However, if you live in Rural Ireland, you could use Red Diesel - also illegal if you don't have it in the tank of an Agricultural based Vehicle. It's simply Diesel or Petrol tinted red with a special dye. The petrol is the same as any other, it's just sold a little cheaper to aid Farmers

SuperInfinity wrote: »

1) Just before you come to a station, somehow make it impossible for your number plate to be read. Maybe cellotape a bit of card over it, you might even be able to have printed letters on it to make it look legit. Nobody will notice much less do anything in the 15 metres from the time you do this to the time you hit the petrol station region.

This poses two problems. First, pre meditation, and second being crime by deception. It's an offence alone to, at any point, mask your number plates from being read. That also means you'll be charged with pre meditation as well and since your deceiving people with the aid of a crime and stealing you're already looking at a lengthy charge sheet.

SuperInfinity wrote: »

2) Wear some kind of hoodie and a disguise to cover your face. It can be any freaky kind of disguise you like as you won't even be going into a shop, dress as member of the opposite gender if you like.

That's also a crime. When you enter a Petrol forecourt you cannot conceal your face. Thus why they ask Motorcyclists to remove their helmets. Whether you step into the shop or not, your behaviour will be caught on CCTV

SuperInfinity wrote: »

3) Take your petrol as a normal every-day paying citizen, then bolt out of there.

Theft, plain and simple, and most honest people wouldn't do that

SuperInfinity wrote: »

What's going to happen? 20 police cars dispatched after you immediately? Yeah right. But even then they wouldn't be able to catch you if you're using a generic-looking car.

Evading arrest, leaving the scene of a crime.....

You're looking at some very serious charges, maybe this explains why people don't chance it

You are sitting in a pub and someone suggests they can fill your car up to the brim with petrol for £20.00. How come it is so cheap, they might tell you " We work for vehicle transporters and need to empty petrol tanks for safety". You personally may not buy this generous offer of a tank full of petrol but someone will and thousands probably do.

How do they really do it? - They take your car and stick on some false number plates and pop into your friendly local filling station or garage and fill up YOUR car. They know where the CCTV camera is and are skilled in not getting caught on camera. Hoods are great camera shelters! Your car is full of petrol and it has transformed itself into a 'get away' car or some boy racers' lethal weapon.

These modern day 'Robin Hood' types seem to think that apart from lining their pockets ( to buy drugs probably ) they are helping the man in the street by filling his car with cheap petrol.

When they decide not to do the pub rounds because they have sufficient funds until the next day, they may choose to steal a car, in fact we don't know for sure whether they cut a duplicate key from your car whilst they where helping you!

Imagine waking up in the morning to find your car ... and your cheap fuel gone.

The nightmare begins. They are in a stolen car full of stolen petrol, who knows what havoc they are about to create?. Death and carnage could be the result of their fix.
Whilst I was sitting in my local petrol station, I watched innocent people going about their business. Children and elderly buying treats from the mini-mart whilst business people and parents were putting petrol in their cars and vans. I saw a car screech out, I doubt if fuel had been stolen because nothing else happened, having said that, we don't know what the company rules are or indeed the procedure in relation to the theft of petrol. Do they just call the police with as much information as possible .. or get on the their job because when the police arrive, there is nobody else to deal with the police. This means they lose far more money closing down whilst the police take statements etc, than the actual stolen petrol.
Do they bang a big red button, which in turn records the vehicle and notifies the police? But all that aside, a child or granny could have been killed. The police are now in pursuit ... it doesn't bear thinking what could happen next.

A multiple collision on the motorway, a crowd at a bus stop mowed down - because the thieves naturally want to escape arrest.
My thoughts turned to a system that could prevent the theft of petrol. In essence if something was in place to stop cars from leaving, and it was obvious that such barriers were in situ, this event probably would not exist. Bank robbery is now rare because of the CCTV and those guillotine like shutters that drop down like a thunder bolt. Okay, I accept that barriers and shutters are a total inconvenience to the 99.9% of people who pay for their petrol and are out of the question. Then I remembered an article that the Customs and Excise had fitted something called 'CatsClaw" at the docks in Dover.

I embarked upon a mission, I searched for the system and the Customs people where more than happy to boast of their new weapon to stop drivers speeding off when passengers were asked to stop for a search. The device is set into the road and operated remotely by an officer. When activated, blades deflate all tyres and immobilise the vehicle.... Simple !! Unfortunately they wouldn't tell me where I could get more information, security reasons you know.

If it is good enough for our Ports, Docks and Harbours, should we want to know why the big petrol filling stations aren't using it.?
If I were in their shoes I would say that it is better to allow someone to drive off than detain a raging bull but if they knew Catsclaw was in operation then they wouldn't steal petrol in the first place. What does it take?
A channel across the exit route for the catsclaw to remain safe until activated and some effective signage.

Obviously thieves would look for other exits and some outdoor landscaping would easily fill those.

We all want to protect our family and friends from lunatics driving with stolen petrol and I don't want my petrol bills increased to pay for the cost of stolen petrol. I want the petrol stations to act now!

ciagr297

ciagr297 wrote: »

cause if i am going to have a criminal record i want it to be for something worthwhile
stealing a tank of petrol doesn't really sound worth it tbh

You'd never get a record for it tho.. Liasons Officer tells you not to do it again and it's done.

Question, does a petrol station still have to pay all the taxes on the petrol stolen?

ciagr297

Deleted User wrote: »

You'd never get a record for it tho.. Liasons Officer tells you not to do it again and it's done.

no way, really? i thought it was classified as shop lifting and they follow the normal route.

ejmaztec

The owner of one of our local filling stations got so pissed off with people not paying, he installed automated pre-pay pumps, and three part-timers lost their jobs as a result.

beks101

SuperInfinity wrote: »

Eh, yes. A low life scumbag is the worst type of person there is. Not someone who makes off with something that isn't theirs.

Low life scumbags are people who go around committing knife-crime, druglords and terrorists and armed robbery, pushing drugs, that sort of thing. NOT a person involved in petty theft and shoplifting.

I'm sure at some point in your life you must have viewed copyright material on your computer without it being your property, does that make you a "low life scumbag"?

The idea that robbing something is inherently wrong in all instances is a corperate idea. Congrats on getting sucked into it.

I'm NOT trying to say it's not wrong to do it or those people shouldn't be ashamed of themselves, just that the hyperbole and run-away exaggeration seen on the internet sometimes seems a bit overboard. I wouldn't call someone a scumbag unless they did something EXTREMELY horrible, like destroyed someone else forever.

Haha. I would've thought the idea that theft is inherently wrong was just common sense, rather than some sort of unchallenged notion that the majority of law-abiding citizens are stupidly swindled into by businesses trying to make a profit.

Like paying for a service somehow makes someone weak and lily-livered by being 'sucked in' to a system that is going to keep their criminal record clean and their reputation upstanding. What a loser the majority of law-abiding citizens are, when they could be 'sticking it to the man!'

And there's a world of difference between viewing copyrighted material on a PC and speeding away from a petrol station with a tank full of unpaid-for gas and you know it. Just as there's a difference between knifing somebody or holding up a plane full of innocent passengers and stealing petrol.

Doesn't make someone any less of a scumbag though. It's just different levels of scum in my book.

bnt

It's only a matter of time before Ireland does what's done in the USA: pumps that take debit and credit cards. You have to insert the card to unlock it, and when you do, it checks your account and puts an immediate hold on a chunk of money, similar to what they do when you check in to a hotel.

e.g. €50 gets "reserved" immediately, so that's what gets charged if you drive off. After pumping e.g. €20 of petrol, the hold is reversed and the real amount charged.

Scuid Mhór

SuperInfinity wrote: »

It seems like a very easy crime with a very high amount to save from it. So why don't people do it much more?

1) Just before you come to a station, somehow make it impossible for your number plate to be read. Maybe cellotape a bit of card over it, you might even be able to have printed letters on it to make it look legit. Nobody will notice much less do anything in the 15 metres from the time you do this to the time you hit the petrol station region.

2) Wear some kind of hoodie and a disguise to cover your face. It can be any freaky kind of disguise you like as you won't even be going into a shop, dress as member of the opposite gender if you like.

3) Take your petrol as a normal every-day paying citizen, then bolt out of there.

What's going to happen? 20 police cars dispatched after you immediately? Yeah right. But even then they wouldn't be able to catch you if you're using a generic-looking car.

it's called having a moral sense of self-worth superinfinity.

**Timbuk2**

As I child I accidentally stole a packet of Werther's Originals from a petrol station. I had them in my hand, and I put them in my pocket briefly so I could free my hands to get a bottle of orange from the back of the fridge. I paid for the orange drink but forgot to take the Werther's out of my pocket.

When I got home I found them and was horrified. The 8 year old me ran back to the shop and put 40p on the counter and ran away without saying anything, with the shopkeeper shouting that I forgot my money, and I shouted above the whole shop "No that's yours" and I ran out the door.

ciagr297

ciagr297 wrote: »

no way, really? i thought it was classified as shop lifting and they follow the normal route.

The normal route is liasons officer.. You promise not to do it again and it's over.