The reason I’m asking is because I’m writing a scene in my screenplay where the main character, who has become completely broke, gets some gas in his car and splits.
I need to know if there is some sort of buzz or beep sound that the attendant will hear. (even if it’s not auditory I will probably have one go off for cinematic purposes, but might as well attempt some accuracy) Is it loud, like a typical alarm?
Also, since it’s not too relevant to the story I will probably just have him get away with it, but in case I change my mind and want it to come up later… I’m assuming they have video to review so they can get the license plate #'s to report it?
Er, ah, hmmm. I don’t see how this could happen. Every station I’ve been to when the nozzle is put into its receptacle after a sale the pump shuts off until it is reset. And the pump doesn’t reset until a credit card is run through the slot in the pump or given to the attendant, or cash is paid to the attendant.
Well, in California it seems to mostly be that way too (if you’re paying cash, you have to pre-pay), but in other places I’ve been you could pump gas and then walk in and pay it afterwards.
Someone tell me this is due to regional variation, and not just because it’s been a while since I’ve seen gas stations like this and they have changed their method. (because I really need this to happen in my script!)
Anyhoo, I don’t know if gas stations have an alarm or not. Probably the best you can hope for is getting the license plate number, or hoping the security camera can see the plate.
In my experience, and I’ve lived in four states, the majority of gas stations have been the opposite. The trend toward "prepay " is more recent, at least around here and in and/around Chicago.
I habitually check for a “prepay” sign when I pull into the gas station, usually it’s not there so I pump, and then go in and pay with cash.
Even so, sometimes they ARE prepay but I miss the sign, so when the pump doesn’t turn on immediately, I just look at the cashier through the window and/or wait a few seconds and usually they go ahead and activate the pump.
That said, all I really know about the OP is there are stickers on the pumps around here mentioning that if you drive off, your license can be suspended.
Before the higher gas prices made drive-offs more appealing and every station under the sun (around here anyway) switched to some form of pre-pay, the usual method of paying cash for gas was to get out, fill your tank, walk inside and pay cash.
My point being that, somewhere between filling the tank and walking inside, most people put the nozzle back in thus ending their interaction with the pump. The gas pump has no way of knowing if you’re driving away or if you’re inside checking out the beef jerky and Gatorade selection before paying for your gas. Hence, no fancy alarms or buzzers. They just rely on the attendants to pay attention.
Ive driven off without paying purely by accident - it didnt even click to me I had until I got home.
There were no repercussions at all, I went back the next day to pay and they had no clue it had even happened. Trust based systems are still fairly common in Oz.
Yes, we recently had a bad one up here, too. Grant DePatie, 24, was dragged and killed when he tried to stop a sixteen year old from swiping twelve bucks worth of gas.
It’s a mix of pre and post pay locally. Most stations have video, of course. but I’ve never heard anything about alarms. Some stations still have the old dinger, the hose thingie that sets off a bell when you run over it, but I think that’s just in the full-serve lane.
But seriously, in the UK and Ireland, many pumps are self service and you pay the cashier inside after you’ve taken your fuel. 24 hour stations or late opening stations require you to prepay, but the majority of fuel would seem to be paid for after the car owner has pumped it.
As an aside, some stations I’ve seen operate a system of post it notes, where registration plates of offending cars are noted and fuel is not to be served to them
Some places just call the cops. I accidently forgot to pay at a place I used regularly and a little while later the cops dropped around to tell me. I just laughed it off and said silly me and went and paid. Nothing else happened.
The place I use now has a really annoying alarm (like those that shops have on their doors) that lets the cashier know that someone has just picked up the hose on one of the pumps so she can clear it.
If the queues to pay get long they can handle 2 people having not paid on a particular pump but not a third.
In Queensland, there are two ways you can pay: EFTPOS at pump (where you swipe your EFTPOS card or credit card through a reader on the pump, enter your PIN, fill your tank, and away you go), or fill the tank first, walk into the petrol station, and pay the attendant.
I’ve never heard of Pre-Paying for fuel in either Australia or New Zealand.
It’s worth bearing in mind that you get 4c/litre off the price of fuel if you have a receipt for more than $30 worth of stuff from the affiliated supermarket ($30 worth of groceries from Coles or Bi-Lo is worth 4c/litre off at Shell petrol stations, $30 worth of groceries from Woolworths is worth 4c/litre off at Caltex, and so on).
As for detection of drive-offs: There are cameras on the forecourt, and when you lift the pump, a bell goes off inside the shop and the console operator “Activates” the pump so you can get your fuel. In theory, if you do a runner without paying for your petrol, they’ll call the police, but in reality they don’t usually notice unless the petrol station is relatively quiet, and the police generally have better things to do with their time that chase people who drove off without paying for $30 worth of Unleaded. (According to a friend of mine who worked for Caltex for a number of years, at least).
So, if your character pulled into a busy petrol station, he could realistically obtain a tank full of petrol and drive off without anyone noticing- but then he’d have to add it to his List and make up for it later, or else Karma will get him.
I’ve never heard of pre-paying in Australia either.
A significent other of a friend got caught for driving off without paying (actually, he didn’t do it, someone else in the car did, but that’s not the point). It wasn’t a big place so maybe it was very low-tech, but in his case it was just the guy watching the cctv, nothing else gave him away (or so said his friends in the car behind him, who stayed at the scene a little longer).
I used to work at a gas station in the Middle of Nowhere, Small Town America. It was a privately owned mom-and-pop place, not a chain. (For the purposes of your story, you may want to set the pump-and-dash at one of those, because procedures are more flexible at these kinds of stores than chains.)
When a customer picked up the nozzle, we would hear a beeping sound, and had to authorize the pump using a keypad in the store. Then, when the customer hung up the nozzle, it would beep again, and we had to hit the button again. We would write down the amount of the purchase on a log sheet, and then check it off when the customer paid. We had no cameras-- too expensive.
While I worked there (almost two years) we only had two driveoffs. One of them was an actual theft, while the other was “The Professor”, an elderly gent who was probably the most brilliant person I’ve ever met, but was so forgetful he would leave his wallet and purchases on the counter and wander off. He paid when I gently reminded him the next time he came in to the store. We called the cops on the theft, but other than a vague description of the car, we didn’t have any way of identifying the thief.
I used to work at a Clark gas station as an attendant about 15 years ago. This was when it was common to fill the tank, then pay. The way it was explained to me was that since I was the attendant, it was my job to watch the cars as they filled up. No security cameras were installed at the time. In my time there I only had one drive off and it was a guy who just forgot. Procedure was for me to get the license plate number and call the police detectives. So I did that and the next day the drive-off guy came back and payed up.
In Virginia, Maryland, and I think the District of Columbia, they’ll revoke you license if you drive off without paying. They must rely on security cameras to get the plate numbers.
Where I worked one summer, there were no cameras outside, and the one drive-off we did have (of which we had zero information other than an outstanding petrol entry on the machine), the owner had the people working at the time cover half the cost.
She paid bare minimum wage too. Glad to quit that job.
