Locking gas caps:are people being paranoid?

[onions!]

I've been selling auto/truck parts since 1989.I can positively say that I've sold more locking gas caps since the begining of summer than I've sold in the whole prior fifteen years!

If at $2.80/gallon people are starting to lock up their fuel how much until they start shooting over gas?

[TarpleyG]

I remember when I was a bit younger, everyone had locking gas caps.  I always thought it more to deter vandalism (i.e. sugar in the tank), than theft.  Guess with prices starting to creep up there, people are desparate.

BTW, you sell aftermarket, OEM, or both?  I am always looking for a good parts guy...

Greg

[garyk/nm]

After having just paid $40 for 3/4 tank of gas (pump kicked off at $40, I couldn't bring myself to pull the handle to make it go higher) I can understand this phenomenon quite well. Don't know about shooting gas thieves, but making them drink some might change their ways.

[Sindawe]

Every vehicle I've owned over the past 22 years (since I started driving) has had a locking gas cap.  If it did not come with one, I put one on.

I don't think I'd shoot a fuel thief, nor make them drink the gasoline.  I'd just let the "play" with my cat Kahless in a very small closet.  All 18 lbs of psycho-terrified of strangers-razor sharp claws/teeth of him.

[Brad Johnson]

Fuel theft has become a big issue in many areas. Locking caps aren't a bad idea, except that the caps must conform to the sealing standards of the factory cap or the computer will start complaining (Check Engine light).

Brad

[thorn]

yeha fuynny people waited till now to lock the cap, i havent heard of gas theft lately.

i just remember being very very young and eveyone in NY started getting locking caps, my dad saying something about it.

we were worried about thieves i think starting with the gas crisis of 70s, and ever since

[Monkeyleg]

They were a big deal in the 1970's during the Oil Embargo.

And I must confess to siphoning some gas when I was a teen, just to keep cruising.

[jefnvk]

No.  Can't answer as to when the shooting starts, but the deaths have.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/08/22/gas.theft.ap/index.html

FORT PAYNE, Alabama (AP) -- A gas station owner was run over and killed when he tried to stop a driver from leaving without paying for $52 worth of gasoline, police said.

The driver had not been apprehended Sunday, and police Chief David Walker said the case was being investigated as a robbery-homicide.

Witnesses told police that Husain Caddi, owner of Fort Payne Texaco, "grabbed onto the vehicle" Friday when the driver began to drive off.

Caddi was dragged across the parking lot and onto a highway, where he fell to the pavement and was run over by the late model sport utility vehicle's rear wheel, Walker said.

"Other vehicles were leaving the station's lot and there was a great deal of traffic on the roadway near the station at the time," Walker said.

Caddi, 54, later died at a hospital, Walker said.

Police said the driver was in his 20s or 30s.

Gas prices have surged to a nationwide average of $2.55 a gallon.

[Antibubba]

It's only paranoia until it happens to you.

[Sylvilagus Aquaticus]

I invested in a locking cap in '73 or so when gas hit $.55 a gallon.   Back then, though, most of my gasoline problems involved my Mustang and 'unwanted additives' that could make their way into it in the high school parking lot.  I imagine that we're going to hear more reports of 'Oklahoma credit cards' in use pretty soon, though.

For the young and uninitiated, an 'Okie credit card' is a length of garden hose. Commonly used to siphon gasoline.  The name varies by location, though.

Getting that first big mouthful of unleaded breaks a lot of users from overcharging.


Regards,
Rabbit.

[Vodka7]

Siphoning isn't so much a problem as eco-vandalism and stupid kids.

A friend in college fit into both of those categories...  He used to go around with wire cutters and steal the gas caps from every SUV parked on the street near his college.  By the end of the semester he had a big cardboard box full of them.