O/T Wana be Gas Thieves

A few weeks ago I came home and found that my gas barrel had the lock broken off of it and fresh tire tracks. Did not have much gas in it and don't plan on refilling it as I don't have that kind of money to fill 300 gal tank..........so...........I went ahead and emptied it and then filled it with water....my tank I can do what I want with it..........well a few days ago came home and saw couple kids pushing their car about 1/4 mile from house.........stopped and asked if they needed help.......well they about choked but said no they were OK.........I smiled and went home to find once again fresh tracks at my gas tank............called sheriff and had him come out...........imagine that.............their tires matched the tracks in my drive...........did not have them arrested for stealing my water but sure had the sheriff scare the crap out of them for stealing my water.......LOL..........so bought another 3 dollar lock and am waiting for the next thief to take my water...........hhhhmmmmm wonder if i should move it closer to the road?............... This is FUN!!!

The worst case would be the vandalism they (or their buds) might do in retaliation for Fooling them. JimN

What would be funny is to fill that tank with septic water instead and see how that works out at the repair garage, "Ah.... gee I guess I pumped my septic tank into my gas tank, duh"

This will make them mostly skittish about coming back...Even the mean ones don't go looking for trouble - it just seems to find them. Those kids know the sheriff will notice them from now on....

Sounds like my friends dad in MD that switched the gas and diesel. He did not bother with calling the law. But he did figure out who was doing it....

You are indeed right. It is your tank. Would love to see the looks on their faces...

Aaron

LOL... That is funny. Water would go straight to the bottom of their tank at the pickup tube too. It's a wonder they got a 1/4 mile. :lol:

That is actually a very legal, no holds barred, funny method of catching a would-be thief redhanded, dumbazz'ed, and embarassed.

I'd think so. Its your tank. If you keep un-drinkable and unseable water in it, and leave it by the barn, and just happen to use a lock to protect your worthless water, its your problem ;-)

heh heh heh

There are urban "civilians" that have no problem with retribution! JimN

My grandpa did the same thing in the 1930's.
Tank was gettin empty quicker than he thought it should.
Turns out it was his neighbor's car sittin in the driveway when grandpa came home from church.
Mark

A buddy of mine came home one afternoon and found his dog had a guy treed on top of a gas tank. It was about 10 above zero and the guy had been up there for more than an hour in a light jacket.

He claimed he was going to leave money for the gas. Yeah, right.

Punks got gas from my service truck earlier this year..So , I made a steel lockable flip cap to cover up the filler neck...Now these "Pillars of the community" siphoned gas from the welder on the truck..Tomorrow , I'm gonna make a lockable cover for it and my outside fuel tank [heating oil]....Ain't life grand...

My dad had gas disappearing years ago. The sheriff sugested he put diesel in the gas barrel so when the gas and diesel barrel were empty he switched them. Two days later we heard that a local punks mother had to call the sheriff to arrest her son because he was drunk and was threating to go teach someone a lesson for messing up his car. Guess who that was. He ran into a corn feild and they had to bring in the dogs to catch him, spent the next few days in detox. We have had no gas thefts since then and that was close to 20 years ago.

The septic water thing did happen once, heard it on Paul Harvey. Theives syphoned out of the wrong tank on a motorhome. Jim

Think they got a 1/4 mile by pushing. They were worn out when I went by them the first time then when the sheriff and I had a talk with them they were trying to say they had not been in the yard but they had been caught red handed.................then tonight I gt home from Topeka and there is a message on my phone from the dad that owned the car saying I owed him $350 for new fuel pump and labor.................OH BOY.........I called him back and politely told him what had happened..........apparently his son told him my son had authorized the gas "purchase"...........well once he heard the truth all I heard was screaming for his son as he hung up the phone............LOL............my son was with me all that day..............Yea I almost expect some retribution but then out here in the sticks if it does happen we will know who did it so in rality I doubt it will happen.............kids say it is the laugh moment of the school right now.............

Next door to me, down a long driveway was a bar where the locals went to quaff their thirst.
The bar owner had 2 boys who finally got old enough to drive. The older one got his license first, and bought an old car to drive.
Now, with no visible means of support, and needing gasoline for it, he was at a loss to get money to drive.
Bar patrons complained that their cars weren't getting the mileage they used to get, but couldn't pin-point why.
Now, being that i lived up the driveway a piece, and always parked my car and truck there, i also noticed my vehicles getting more thirsty of late! I also noticed the neighbor kis always seemed to have gasoline to drive around on!
So, my gas cap was inside a trap-door cover. In front of the filler pipe was a tin baffle to keep road splash from getting on the cap.
So, i bought a rat trap and an eye bolt and piece of chain, installed that all inside the trap door, on top of the cap, and waited. (I had baited the trap that evening, by telling somebody i had just filled my gas tank.
I think the owners kid heard me.
Next time i went to the place for a cool one, the kid had his fingers all bandaged up! I checked the trap and it was sprung! And, i found skin on it, not rat hair! I asked the kid how his fingers got hurt. He said a log had fallen on them. But--i never had any more gasoline stolen out of my cars!
When i got out of Army after WW II, i worked at a gas station. Fellow came in for gas, with a '37 chevy coupe. He opened the trunk lid, showed me a gas tank in there, and said put the gas in there.
It seemed that somebody had stolen gas from the regular tank a lot, so he switched the fuel line to the inner tank, and put water in the regular one, with a couple gallons of gas in to give the correct smell, and for whoever sucked on it to start the flow, would get the taste of gasoline before the water came thru! He allowed that several young, unemployed fellers in town seemed to be having lots of trouble getting their cars to run on water!