Fuel thieves target gas stations

[Astro14]

Stop thinking that this is stealing from the "Big Oil Company"....that this is "victimless crime" so it's OK. It's not OK, it's stealing, plain and simple.

That station is owned by a small business person. In my case, the Shell station on the corner is owned by my next door neighbor. He pays a distributor for the gasoline that is delivered to his station's tanks. His margin on gasoline sales is thin. Pennies on the gallon. Take a few hundred gallons, you've stolen over $1,000 right from him. Not some big company, him. Now, you make it hard for him to meet payroll, pay his mortgage, all the things that you do with your paycheck.

If I grabbed a grand from your wallet, you would consider it theft. You might even be upset about it. Taking the gasoline from his station without paying for it is stealing from him.

He lives in a modest house, supports his 5 kids, and is a great guy. Stealing is wrong and in this case, it's stealing from my neighbor. Taking gasoline without paying is theft. Period.

Others on BITOG have advocated the use of lethal force to stop the theft of property, particularly when that property is used to support a family. The gasoline in the tanks at the neighborhood Shell station near me meet that definition of property from which a person draws his livelihood.

No different than showing up at a rancher's place and killing a few of his herd. Sure, he's got lots of cattle, but you're depriving him of his livelihood.

 

[rjundi]

Agreed the oil companies lose very little on this. The gas station loses big on a product he gets small profit on. Not good.

 

[cjcride]

Theft IS Theft.

 

[Jarlaxle]

Originally Posted By: Schmoe
victimless crime?? Seriously????

What industry needs to do is install odd bolt patterns on the fill ports akin to fire hydrants. They use pentagon shaped bolts. Recently they are changing out to an electronic type of lock. Without the electronic key, akin to a car, you can't open any valves.


I'd bet a pipe wrench will open a fire hydrant.

 

[Jarlaxle]

Originally Posted By: jrustles
Originally Posted By: Garak
When a Canadian judge orders you to pay restitution to Imperial Oil, you'll find out that they are, indeed, the victim.


lol. hundreds of thousands of humans who have had their lives taken for monopolistic commercial ventures of both banks and petroleum conglomerateas; the most profitable entities in human history-- are not victims worth thinking about. The pricing conspiracy that is in no way related to cost of production-at all- is inconsequentaial to us all. But Exxon mobil losing out on an infinitesimally small sum of PROFIT is the victim.


okay. lets use our own independent will and volition to defend that party

Offhand, I have shell & ExxonMobil stocks in my retirement plans...as do millions of others.

 

[jeepman3071]

What bothers me is the stupidity of the people who didn't report it. I've never seen a van that delivers fuel to the gas station. Most of the time its in a TANKER TRUCK that is clearly marked.

Around here there were some guys stealing diesel fuel a while back. They would go in people's driveways who owned diesel trucks and drill a hole in the bottom of the tank or cut the fuel lines. Lots of people (including a school bus yard) had to replace fuel tanks and lines before the thieves were caught.

 

[fdcg27]

Okay, I can understand where you're coming from.
The oil producers profit handsomely from their exploitation of mineral wealth that is our common geologic heritage and avoid paying for most of the environmental damage incidental to their extracting and transporting this extracted wealth.
They also price these extracted products seemingly on a whim, which rarely leads to lower product pricing for us.
The problem is that when someone steals fuel from a gas station, they aren't sticking it to BP, RDS or XOM.
They're robbing some poor schmuck trying to make a living from the c-store/gas station he operates.
The losses are typically the operator's problem, not Big Oil's, so the gas thieves aren't stealing from the real bad guys, they're robbing people just like us.

 

[Astro14]

Originally Posted By: fdcg27
Okay, I can understand where you're coming from.
The oil producers profit handsomely from their exploitation of mineral wealth that is our common geologic heritage and avoid paying for most of the environmental damage incidental to their extracting and transporting this extracted wealth.
They also price these extracted products seemingly on a whim, which rarely leads to lower product pricing for us.
The problem is that when someone steals fuel from a gas station, they aren't sticking it to BP, RDS or XOM.
They're robbing some poor schmuck trying to make a living from the c-store/gas station he operates.
The losses are typically the operator's problem, not Big Oil's, so the gas thieves aren't stealing from the real bad guys, they're robbing people just like us.


Precisely....

 

[Mr Nice]

I could never take on so much stress, aggravation, financial debt and dealing with fraud, not to mention the business getting robbed being the owner of a gas station / convenience store.