Back in the day, if you needed to *ahem* "borrow" a bit of gas from a neighbor, you stuck a rubber hose down the filler neck, sucked on it until you got a mouthful of gas, spat out the gas and siphoned whatever you needed into whatever container you had. Now that gas is on its way to $4/gallon, gas thefts are becoming more common. But what's an enterprising thief to do with locking gas caps or fuel doors? 9News out of Denver reports scrotes are drilling holes in the gas tanks to siphon out the liquid gold. They're targeting SUVs and other vehicles with a lot of ground clearance (and usually, huge gas tanks), leaving behind about $500 in damages above the cost of the gas they steal. Denver police are recommending owners put their cars inside garages if possible. And if not possible, the owners may want to take out additional fire insurance; it's only a matter of time before one of these mental midgets starts a fire and burns the vehicle (and possibly themselves) to the ground.
14 Comments on “Forget Siphoning. Crooks are now Drilling for Gas...”
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They’re also taking the catalytic converter for the platinum. In the good old days they just took hubcaps.
Ugh. Take my gas, but PLEASE don’t drill a hole in my tank! That’s just plain mean. Cost of repair + cost of rental + cost of lost wages has to be far greater than $500.
“Denver police are recommending owners put their cars inside garages if possible.”
Except if you have a Ford built before 2005.
“the owners may want to take out additional fire insurance;”
Esspecially if you have a Ford built be 2005.
lol.
I’ll just leave my non-locking gas cap and non-locking fuel door alone on my Fusion. I’d rather lose $50 in gas…
besides, dont they know that most fuel doors can be pried open easier than drilling a hole near the explosive stuff?
# jaydez :
besides, dont they know that most fuel doors can be pried open easier than drilling a hole near the explosive stuff?
I’m sure it’s a lot faster to drain out a hole in the bottom of the tank than wait for the siphon, even including the few seconds to drill through a plastic gas tank.
You can’t siphon the gas on newer vehicles, since they have some safety device in the filler tube to block the siphon.
Don’t most comprehensive policies cover fire already?
It’s Mad Max. Interesting.
Scrotes really give me the creeps when I am in Denver. Glad I don’t live there.
I don’t think they drill the tank. It’s easier/faster with a punch
# thalter :
Don’t most comprehensive policies cover fire already?
If the problem becomes common enough, the insurance companies will drop fire damage due to theft. Just like the idiots dropped coverage of moose collision damage in New Brunswick several years back.
Interestingly enough, while moose collision reports dropped, mysterious fires became much more common…
Bruce
it’s only a matter of time before one of these mental midgets starts a fire and burns the vehicle (and possibly themselves) to the ground
And, the car owner will be sued by the thief (or his relatives in the case of death) for damages because they maintained an attractive nuisance, a car with gas in the tank.
If the insurance companies actually had any sense they would simply adjust rates for cars that not kept in garages.
Such would be pointless, Landcrusher. Whether a vehicle is garaged or not changes on a daily basis. Mine certainly does. In addition, many Americans have a garage, but cannot actually park one or more vehicles in it (as it gets used for ‘temporary’ storage). Would they get credit? Finally, many of these incidents are occurring while the vehicle is either parked at work or at commercial establishments (i.e. the neither regions of the local Wal-mart parking lot).
You would think it would be pointless, but my insurance company has taken my word on lot’s of stuff before. They ask if your car is regularly parked in your garage, you answer truthfully or risk them denying your claim. Sure, you could empty out your garage the day after your car gets damaged and just claim it didn’t get in that night, but are you really that dishonest?
If the answer for different cars is yes or no, then the discount is only applied to the one in the garage (usually the more expensive).
Perhaps if people get their tanks drilled, they will stop piling crap in their garage and put their car in it overnight. Where are the greens on this one? Maybe people should be more careful about how much useless crap they buy.