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Years ago I had a job working graveyard shift at a gas station. Policy was generally to allow people to pump their gas, then come in to pay. For the most part it was not a problem, but still on a fairly regular basis people would rabbit without paying. I've always been somewhat tightly wound, like many a libertarian/conservative type, so I would take it personally even thought the money wasn't coming out of my pocket.
I lived for the day when I would catch one of these bastards (invariably they were male). I did, exactly once. It was a car that I recognized as being a previous drive-off, a gold sedan. Sure enough, he filled his tank and rabbited. I dashed out in time to get his plate (no cameras back then) and called 911. They caught him and brought him back to make him pay.
I was livid. "I want him arrested for theft," I told the cop. Cop said no, we don't do that; if he pays you he goes on his way. So he paid, chortled, and went on his way. Sometime later he got a little comeuppance when he pulled into the station on E and I refused to sell him any gas. He called the cops on me. A cop showed up and explained to him that I had the right to refuse service. Hopefully he ran out of gas before reaching the next station.
Never ditched on paying for gas, that seems rather low.
However, I do recall a "rather amusing" thing I did. Decades ago. I was young, and didn't own a car worth a squirt (motorcycle only, that's how I rolled so to speak). My mother was terminal. I flew home and realized after some weeks with her and my dad at @childhood home it was last time I'd see her alive. Arrived back home via San Francisco Airport. They wanted some asinine amount for parking, which I suppose I should have known had I been thinking straight. I was emotionally exhausted, to the nth degree. We're talking like hundreds of dollars or thereabouts. I'd had enough, and drove around the barrier. On a motorcycle, wasn't that hard to do or even dangerous per se. Never heard another word about it. Definitely "wrong", though strikes me as rather grimly amusing in later decades.
I'd...had...enough. Bet some of you know what I mean.
Nope, but I've done the oposite a few times around the time when everything was switching from pump and pay to pay before. Go in, pay 10 or 20 bucks for gas, go back to the truck and drive off only to relize a few miles down the road I forgot to put the gas in!
I have had the fortune of never experiencing this. I am very cautious about such things because I have no desire to become involved with the "Justice System."
All these stories are about "brain farts." People are forgetful, and some people are klutzes, and some are just absent minded.
These $50 or $100 dollar "crimes" should be disposed of by paying the station owner what is owed and maybe a fine - to go to the station - if they request it. Maybe $15-$20. Instead they are often made into life altering court cases - for a simple mistake.
I've done it once, a long time ago. As others have said, most pumps these days are prepay. I was on a short roadtrip down to Austin about 20 years ago with my girlfriend at the time, and we stopped at a small gas station off the highway. So I got out and started pumping gas, and she was going in to buy food and some drinks. I told her what I wanted, and I had assumed that she was going to tell the guy to put whatever amount from pump XX on the card. The pump clicks off, she comes back to the car, and we drive away. It wasn't until later that night after we'd arrived in Austin that I went out to clean out the car and I found the receipt in the bag, it only had the snacks on it, no gas.
I didn't know if I'd get in trouble for it or not, so I said we'd stop on our way back and pay what we owed. After a weekend of drinking and partying though, we completely forgot and just drove straight home, so I never made it up.
This was back in the day when 93 octane was selling for $1/gallon though, so it wasn't THAT big of a deal, probably would have been a light misdemeanor if we'd been caught.
Maybe the station attendant who got stuck with your bill did think it was a big deal.
Once was at a full serve. I asked the attendant to put 20 in. He did so, and then walked away. I gave him a few minutes to come back out, but he didn't. F*ck'em, I thought, and left.
The next time wasn't really leaving without paying though. It was the middle of the night out in the country. I was really low on gas and quite far from the city, or the nearest pump. As I shot by this old service station that was darkened and closed for the night, I noticed the pumps were on. So, I went back, filled'er up, and took off.
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Ever drive away without paying for the gas?
