Today at the gas pump, a man tried to drive away without paying. He was still filling when I pulled in to use the pump in front of him, inadvertently blocking his escape path. While he was backing up to get around me, the clerk had enough time to run out and stop him. He made some lame excuse about forgetting and thank goodness you stopped me, then paid the $43 he owed.
This fellow was clean-cut, neatly dressed, and driving a decent car; he certainly didn’t look hard done by. The clerk told me that folks in Jaguars and BMWs also try to drive off without paying.
Let me get this straight. You’re making enough to buy a luxury car, and you try to skip out on the gas bill?
Possibly selective memory on the clerk’s part. A person driving a luxury car and stealing $45 of premium gas is much more outrageous than a guy in an 89 Oldsmobile swiping $12 worth of the low-end stuff. And it makes a much better story. So it sticks with him, even though it might not happen more often statistically.
Actually, I used to work at a gas station. As an attendant, I didn’t care what you were driving-I’d chase after you anyway. I had to pull over several people.
Imagine that, a teenager (at the time) chasing down a guy in a car on a major highway.
At the time, all that mattered was the potential thief. Looking back, I realize that all the other people who were buying gas could’ve EASILY stolen their gas, while I was chasing the original thief.
I think more “respectable” people would cheat and/or steal if it was easier to do, the likelihood of getting caught is low and the amount stolen seems trivial to make it easier on the old conscience.
Think of all the folks who drive off without paying for gas once in awhile, illegally copy CD’s, cheat a bit on their income taxes, “pad” expense accounts, install unlicensed software on their computers, take two hours for lunch when the boss is away, say nothing when a cashier doesn’t charge for an item, etc.
Then think of how few relatively few “respectable” folks rob banks, knock off a 7-11, steal cars, and burglarise homes.
For some it’s just a question of the likelihood of getting caught and the penalty for getting caught.
Interesting point, Lorenzo. I would have thought that the gas theft is more ballsy, though. You don’t copy CDs or install unlicenced software while the store’s salesperson is looking over your shoulder, you do it at home where the authority is out of sight and out of mind. Driving off on a gas bill is like running out of the restaurant without paying; there’s an imminent chance of getting caught.
The clerk hypothesized that people get a rush out of it. She also suggested that people think the big, evil gas corporation takes the hit, when in fact it’s the franchise owner. Apparently they’re allotted $1000 per year for driveaways, the rest is out of their pocket.
As for statistics, SmackFu, I don’t know. She didn’t say whether BMWs were more or less frequent than Oldsmobiles, she merely commented that the practice was not restricted to those of limited economic means. Stealing is, I think, less forgivable when the excuse of necessity isn’t present. Certainly less understandable.
When I worked at a gas station, most of the people we caught after running said that they were doing a credit card purchase and thought that it went through. In actuality, it didn’t go through and by tripping the switch, they asked us to turn the pump on for them.
I don’t know if this is true for that many people, but I believed most of them. They seemed like honest people who just made a mistake most of the time.
We drove off once and forgot to pay. We’d gotten so used to pay-at-the-pump that we just forgot to go in. We turned around and paid as soon as we realized it, of course, and the person was very grateful (?) as it was probably over $30. So I can definitely see it as an accident some of the time.
Where I worked, a few drive-offs happened at night, and these were most often caught. Most of them happened during evening rush hour though; the place I worked didn’t require trucks to only use the “outside” lane (furthest from the cashiers’ view) and wouldn’t let us make people pre-pay, so when a big truck was blocking the view, it was common for somebody to take off without paying. It was no coincidence; it always happened when a large vehicle was blocking our view.
…
-Some places make employees pay for the gas if they can’t get a license plate, and fire them if they refuse. Not where I worked for several years, mind you, I’d have said a big “f*ck you” and walked the first time it happened. I saw lots of people look straight at me and get into a new car without a license plate, and drive off and usually not get caught.
~
Drive offs aren’t really possible where I live. Every gas station has two choices–pay at the pump, and pay ahead inside. I always use pay at the pump with my ATM.
In my travels lately, I’ve noticed stickers on the pumps saying you can lose your license for driveaways. Is this the case where you live? Anyone know what it takes to lose you license this way? Arrest? Multiple convictions? One-shot deal?
As for me, if I can’t pay at the pump, I’ll find another station. So that keeps me from accidentally driving off.
I swear that I’m going to end up doing that someday. Not on purpose, but just because all the gas stations that I use around here are pay at the pump, and someday I’m going to have to stop at one that’s not, and then forget that I didn’t already pay.
It’s possible to have something on your mind, go through the motiions of pumping and just driving off. I’ve done it a couple of times over 100 years (just kidding) of driving. Both times it just suddenly dawned on me a few miles down the road. I turned around went back, apologized & paid. One time when I went back they were pretty much laughing at me because they had seen it before and could tell I was embarassed. The other time they just said “It happens, we’re just glad to get paid, we’ll call the cops back and tell 'em to forget it .” Now I pay at the pump always so that pretty much takes care of that.
The car has another car’s license plate on it, or the license plate is so dirty it’s unreadable, or it’s a new car with no license plate at all and no rear window sticker visible. Or it just doesn’t have any license plate. Or the license plate is legit for the car, but the owner moved out of their old address, and there’s no new address registered yet. ~ -Sometimes the video cameras they installed are so cheap and crappy that under poor lighting conditions (like at night) the letters of even a clean license plate aren’t legible on videotape. Other times they have several cameras, but only one video-recording machine that skips around to all the cameras—and the recording misses the car entering and leaving. … A gas drive-off is not an emergency, so the police can’t speed to get there and look for the person. When we called the police, generally the person didn’t get caught except if they crossed paths with a police car. The cops rarely ever went to the registered address and found the car, or caught the car arriving home.
I’d also point out that we didn’t have to do anything but call the police. We were specifically told never to pursue anybody for stealing anything, except to see what car the got into or what direction they ran off.
,
Also, it’s pretty obvious if somebody just forgets, because they just drive off at a normal speed (looking both ways before pulling out into traffic, etc.), they take the time to do al teh things you’d normally do. People stealing often toss the pump nozzle on the ground, run&jump in and floor it, burning rubber off down the road.
~
I’m sure it’s possible that payment would just slip someone’s mind. Actually, the exact opposite happened to me. See, usually I buy gas during the day. I pump it first, then go in to pay for it and buy a soda. One time I stopped to get gas at night and went inside to prepay (and buy a soda, of course). I walked out to my car, hopped in, and drove away - without pumping!
I realized my mistake a few miles later and turned around. Red-faced, I explained what happened to the cashier. She let me have my gas.
Last time I was in Canada, I couldn’t find a pay-at-pump station (I was kind of in the middle of nowhere, which might have added to it.)
Every single place I went to said they’d had Americans drive off (or start to drive off) without paying because we’re no longer used to going to an actual person and handing over cash - instead of just swiping through the card.
In Virginia, almost every gas pump has a sticker slapped on it saying “If you don’t pay, you will lose your license”. Also, a lot of the busier gas stations have video cameras placed outside in strategic locations.