Expect more of this. During gas shortage of the 70's, and it was epic, the station lines would be 20 cars long. A lot of ripoffs occured then, from individual tanks to whole tanker trucks being stolen. A locking gas cap is in order.
I am starting to have problems with people stealing my WVO oil from the restaurants I work with. I was ripped off for 50 gallons this last weekend at one, and at another, someone tried to cut the the cable that locks on the lid to my drum. Where money is involved, expect the worst in people to surface. Kinda of a bummer we have to deal with scumbags like them.

 

I would think the roll-over valve in the filler neck would keep a hose from going down there. At least on mine I had to put a hose directly into the tank underneath to empty the tank for dropping it. I think the best bet will always be a motion sensor alarm with a pager.
Check out www.zoneminder.com if you guys are interested in setting up a security DVR on the cheap. I found it very helpful at guarding my stuff.
Ya I have the pitbull too but shes a wuss unless you have a fluffy grey tail (shhh, dont tell anyone).
I hid my veggie tanks under the truck along with all the plumbing for reasons just like this.
thats just whacked that someone would cut a lock for waste oil. Very scary the way the economy and fuel prices are going.

 

That's a really good point. It's just going to get worse as prices go up. If we ever have a shortage and rationing, people could start getting car-jacked after filling the tank just so they can get the fuel.

 

The sad part it has to get worse before it gets better,I expect maybe a few months after it goes over 4 buck a gallon the Gov will do something..

Hmmm a tanker full of diesel and no one around? Hmmmmm sigh well it's always nice to dream.

Pav

 

"I expect maybe a few months after it goes over 4 buck a gallon the Gov will do something.."

Don't hold your breath on this one. Most of the folks up there get thier real income from oil companies, wether it be kickback or they have large amounts of stock bult up in those companies. Why would they want to cut thier own income?

 

and they will look like the thugs in roadwarrior!!

 

Carjacked after I fill up.....hmmm, hello bad guy, meet Mr. Springfield Armory most people just call him my friend.

Yeah, I second the motion on not using a locking door. The thief will rip into that just to find out you have a locking cap. Better that the idiot can just open the door and see the locking cap.

I just filled up my truck today, almost $90 and 27 gallons. I've driven this truck for over a year and a half and have never put 27 gallons in it. It's been at a 1/4 tank and would stop around 22-23 gallons. That is confusing to me. I guess my tank just got bigger.

Thieves, just stick em' on a one way trip to Jupiter.....or somewhere other than here.

 

Boy do I remember all the fuel problems in the 70's, I owned a Texaco Station at the time. Besies long lines and angry people, we also had to limit their purchases to something like 10 gallons when the bulk supplier was low. We did not have all the fancy electronics then, had full service pumps, so we could not just put the limit on with a remote computer. I can't tell you how many times I was threatened, lost count real fast. People were crazy then, I cannot imagine how it could go now.

I sold a ton of locking gas caps and those spirals you could thread into the filler neck to prevent siphoning. I even had to lock up my lids on my fuel tanks, something that I had never locked with many years of no one trying to steal from them.

All it takes to quickly drain our fuel tanks is a piece of 1/2" thin wall pipe cut at about a 60* angle, sharp like a needle, punches right through the plastic tank wall with a rubber hammer, they shove a hose on it and fill several cans. Virtually no noise doing this, tank empties fast and they are done/gone in just about 5 minutes.

Fuel theft has already started to become a big problem in the last few weeks. It will only get worse. If/when a tank puncture happens to you, the cost of a metal replacement tank with a larger capacity is right at the same price as replacing your existing tank. The only reason I know this is because I have been looking at getting a larger tank an checking out prices. I checked with my dealer about the replacement cost of the fuel tank so I would have an idea of it's value for resale.

CD

 

Within the last couple of years in this area they have had a couple of enterprising thieves.

One would pull up next to other vehicles and drop a siphon hose into the tank and pick up several gallons and then move on.

The other one had a van and would park out of the way but spend quite a bit of time on the station property. Found out that he had a pump, hose, and a hole in the floor of the van. He was pumping fuel out of the station tanks.

 

Saw something pretty similar on the news a couple weeks ago - guy had a tandem axle box trailer, he'd mounted a big tank and pump in it - and a hatch system. He'd park the rig over the dump ports at his local station, then put on a big act of having truck trouble - hood up, getting tools out etc. He was ripping off literally thousands of gallons a month. News item didn't say what he was DOING with the fuel, though.... just that a sharp local police officer picked up on him and started watching.

Funniest part was that none of the stations were reporting the hundreds of gallons a week in "lost" tankage - probably they thought they had a leaker and would have to deal with EPA!

edit: here's the link I found to the story
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/...,5297027.story

 

Any chance you could post the videos so we could get a laugh too??

 

I was just thinking about buying a locking cap yesterday. No one around my nieghborhood uses diesel but you can never be too safe. I'm going to see what the parts store has.

 

It's pretty funny when no one in your neighborhood uses diesel, but the thieves on the block don't know any better. You can tell the thieves by their sputtering [gas] car.

 

I have heard that a lot of the tanks made today have some sort of anti siphon device built in the pipe going down to the fuel tank

 

Next time we do it I will,I use a 12 hr VHS tape after it runs though and there is nothing on it I reuse it,so it got erased awile ago,that and a little concerned about someone calling the cops about it.

Ya there that stupid around here.

Pav