For a minute there I thought I had to get off my couch, when all the while the fact is we don't have to do anything much but keep things afloat for just a few decades more! In fact, we'd best shut up about PO, because if our offspring finds out we knew about it all along, they'll turn and wring our necks come 2036!
Posted: Thu Jun 12, 2008 6:33 am Post subject: Re: Gasoline and Diesel Thefts Thread
10 S.J. government workers indicted in gasoline thefts
Quote:
New Jersey will audit vehicle and gasoline use by thousands of Children and Families Department workers after prosecutors today charged a dozen people with stealing gas from government fueling stations.
The audit, which will examine use of 2,500 Children and Families' vehicles, comes as six current and former members of the department were indicted on official misconduct charges. Also charged with stealing gas were two municipal employees from Camden, four Camden Board of Education workers, and one private citizen.
"These government workers literally took a free ride at the expense of state and local taxpayers," Attorney General Anne Milgram said. "They didn't steal cash, but it might as well have been cash."
While gas prices around the country have reached $4 a gallon and higher, they remained $3.97 on average in New Jersey today, thanks to the state's low gas tax.
Other state workers tipped authorities to the possible thefts, copying down license plates at state-run fueling stations and turning them over to state police. Milgram said other alleged thefts were perpetuated by employees who had been issued keys or cards to activate state-owned gas pumps, and by one person who stole an activation card before being fired.
The thefts ranged from $20 worth of gas to several hundred gallons.
Authorities said two defendants filled up 10 times within one six-hour period last June to steal $472 worth of gas, prompting Milgram to call some of the alleged thefts "a friends and family plan."
Posted: Sun Jun 15, 2008 9:00 pm Post subject: Re: Gasoline and Diesel Thefts Thread
Gas thefts, like prices, are soaring
Quote:
As gasoline prices spiral toward $5 per gallon, more enterprising criminals are stealing it directly from cars, law enforcement and some local car-related business owners say.
Though Vallejo police don't track reports of gas theft, they say incidents are no doubt rising with gas prices.
"It's difficult to quantify, but it wouldn't surprise me," that the numbers of such crimes are growing, said Vallejo Police Department spokesman Lt. Rick Nichelman. "Just like they started going after copper wire once they learned it was valuable."
Calls about stolen gas are not a high priority for the beleaguered VPD, which is seemingly hemorrhaging officers in the face of the city's financial uncertainty. So those reporting missing gas do so online or by mail, said Lt. Eric Mortenson.
Car rental managers like Tanisha Taylor are beginning to chalk gas theft up as a new and increasingly expensive cost of doing business.
"It's a big problem," Taylor said. "Usually, it's the 12-passenger vans, because they have the biggest tanks, and they're evidently the easiest to siphon gas from."
Taylor, who owns Vallejo's Sonoma Boulevard Avis Rent-A-Car, said thieves manage to ply their trade no matter what she's done to thwart them.
Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2008 10:18 am Post subject: Re: Gasoline and Diesel Thefts Thread
Drifter quoted:
Quote:
As gasoline prices spiral toward $5 per gallon, more enterprising criminals are stealing it directly from cars, law enforcement and some local car-related business owners say.
When I was running a mining company in New England gas thieves were a constant problem. I lost 500 gallons in one month alone.
I towed and old forklift into the block storage yard and poured 10 gallons of gas into it. Its tank sat on top of the machine, so it was easy to get at. I then poured a couple of pounds of sugar into the tank.
To find your thieve all you had to do was drive up and down the roads looking for someone with a piece of 2X4 and a sledge hammer trying to beat the pistons out of the block of their engine.
Works every time, and the message travels. Thieves have a tendency to cluster.
Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2008 1:19 pm Post subject: Re: Gasoline and Diesel Thefts Thread
shortonoil wrote:
I then poured a couple of pounds of sugar into the tank.
To find your thieve all you had to do was drive up and down the roads looking for someone with a piece of 2X4 and a sledge hammer trying to beat the pistons out of the block of their engine.
Too bad that sugar in the tank is an urban myth. Cars don't break down if you pour sugar in the tank. Sugar doesn't dissolve in gasoline. Try it yourself.
http://www.snopes.com/autos/grace/sugar.asp _________________ "We cut the earth until it bleeds, rain ashes from the sky
Just to make a light that no one can see"
-- VNV Nation - Carbon
Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2008 4:25 pm Post subject: Re: Gasoline and Diesel Thefts Thread
Pholostan wrote:
shortonoil wrote:
I then poured a couple of pounds of sugar into the tank.
To find your thieve all you had to do was drive up and down the roads looking for someone with a piece of 2X4 and a sledge hammer trying to beat the pistons out of the block of their engine.
Too bad that sugar in the tank is an urban myth. Cars don't break down if you pour sugar in the tank. Sugar doesn't dissolve in gasoline. Try it yourself.
Posted: Tue Jun 17, 2008 4:51 am Post subject: Re: Gasoline and Diesel Thefts Thread
ColossalContrarian wrote:
Even if the sugar doesn't seize the engine, it can't be good for it! I would advise against putting sugar in the gas tank. Even to test this myth out.
Yeah, it might clog the fuel filter or such. It won't hurt the engine one bit though. Worst case on a modern car would be a fuel pump or injectors clogged with sugar, but that sounds unlikely. Fuel pumps and injectors have filters to prevent such a thing. Would be easy to clean out I think.
Snopes mention a cost of $200 for cleaning out the fuel tank and such. A far cry from a destroyed engine.
ColossalContrarian wrote:
It would be like putting sand in your gas tank. You wouldn't do that would you?
No, I wouldn't. But sugar is much softer than sand. I've witnessed a guy pouring sugar straight into the intake on a running engine. It stalled and nocked a little. No engine damage. The sugar burned in the combustion chamber. I guess sugar has a lower octane rating than gasoline due to the nocking.
Sand on the other hand might very well scrach cylinder walls, pistons, valves etc. Pouring sand into the intake would probably damage the engine. _________________ "We cut the earth until it bleeds, rain ashes from the sky
Just to make a light that no one can see"
-- VNV Nation - Carbon
Posted: Tue Jun 17, 2008 10:18 am Post subject: Re: Gasoline and Diesel Thefts Thread
Pholostan wrote:
Sugar doesn't dissolve in gasoline.
No, but it is partly soluble in alcohol, and there are numerous other VOCs used in gasoline blends, some of which it is also soluble in, so really it depends on the particular gasoline in question.
E-85 anyone?
"Sugar doesn't dissolve in gasoline" is a half-truth at best...
(Incidentally, Snopes.com is not an authoritative source on anything. Quoting them is akin to quoting Wikipedia... ) _________________ "It means buckle your seatbelt, Dorothy, because Kansas? Is goin' bye-bye... "
Posted: Tue Jun 17, 2008 12:31 pm Post subject: Re: Gasoline and Diesel Thefts Thread
Pholostan said:
Quote:
Too bad that sugar in the tank is an urban myth. Cars don't break down if you pour sugar in the tank. Sugar doesn't dissolve in gasoline. Try it yourself.
Come by and we’ll try it on YOUR car. Apparently you have never seen the results of a sugared engine. What a mess. The sugar leaves carbon when it burns. This freezes up the rings and will bake the pistons right into the block. Sugar dissolves only moderately in gasoline, but enough will get through either in solution or suspension to do the deed. Use confectionery sugar for best results. For even better results dissolve the sugar in ethanol or acetone then add to the gas.
What kind of idiot would pour sugar straight into his intake manifold?!
Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2008 1:17 pm Post subject: Re: Gasoline and Diesel Thefts Thread
Well we got hit by siphon thieves this weekend. Truck and car both nearly dry Monday. Figured about 12 gallons from the truck, and 5 from the Mustang. That's $75 gone. Easier then robbing someone.
Shelves have been cleaned out of locking gas caps here locally. Also heard on the news of an Oregon Ford dealership who had 1/2 dozen SUV's gas tanks DRILLED in one night. Crazy thing is everyone knows they only keep a few gallons in the cars that sit on the lot.
Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2008 11:25 pm Post subject: Re: Gasoline and Diesel Thefts Thread
Thieves target farm diesel supplies as prices soar
Quote:
With the price of diesel skyrocketing, farmers and ranchers around the country are being targeted by ne'er-do-wells armed with syphon hoses and pumps.
Sheldon Wilder, who owns a cotton gin 30 miles east of Memphis, Tenn., has endured worse already. Twice in two weeks, he had diesel drained from saddlebag tanks on a truck at his gin. The second time the thieves left the hoses loose and what diesel they didn't steal drained out onto the ground.
"You get irritated, but that's life," he said of the combined 300 gallons taken in the thefts. "It's just people who want some money."
Western Texas cotton producer Mark Schoepf said that with the price of diesel above $4.15 a gallon, he's decided to protect his investment. He recently bought 10 padlocks to affix to tanks that fuel the diesel motors irrigating his fields.
Many of those tanks are visible from a highway bordering his fields, making them easy targets.
"Before, we've never kept them locked," said Schoepf, who is able to store up to 5,000 gallons to fuel his farming operation east of Lubbock. "With diesel prices that high, somebody's going to try to get it."
Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 7:44 am Post subject: Re: Gasoline and Diesel Thefts Thread
Oilfield thefts soar in Texas as prices boom
Quote:
The wide open oilfields of West Texas are ripe pickings for thieves these days.
Some drive up to one of the thousands of pump jacks that dot the countryside and siphon crude out of the storage tanks.
Some pull up to a drill site after the crews have gone for the night and haul away tools, pipes and equipment.
Others take kickbacks, file false invoices or just plain steal knowing their bosses are too busy riding the oil boom to keep a close eye on accounting.
It's gotten so bad that the Federal Bureau of Investigation is launching a joint task force to tackle oilfield theft next month.
And the lawmen who have been through the last boom and bust cycle say it is only going to get worse.
"There's oilfield theft running rampant," said Midland County Sheriff Gary Painter. "A lot of it we don't even know about because with the boom going on and people making so much money there's not time to go over every invoice."
It may not be quite like the film Mad Max out there, with violent gangs roaming Britain in search of the few remaining drops of fuel, but for farmers like Eddie Cowpe it feels a little bit like it.
He returned to his farm shop in Lancashire recently to find that thieves had emptied his 10,000-litre diesel tank. What they did not take they let drain away on to his stone yard and into the water course, leaving Cowpe facing a bill of almost £70,000 for the fuel lost and the clean-up.
"I said two years ago that this country was going to see serious civil unrest and riots because of food and fuel shortages," said Cowpe. "It's going to come true. It's a frightening scenario. These people are morons and vandals. They just don't care. I don't know where it's going to end."
Quote:
Oil prices have been on an upward trend since the millennium, when they were around $10-20 a barrel. The huge increases have led to gangs of thieves in lorries or vans fitted with drums and pumps roaming the countryside, often tailing tankers so they can be sure of finding freshly topped-up containers.
Petrol stations are even setting up "stingers" that puncture the tyres of motorists who drive off without paying and farmers are getting together to create secure compounds for their fuel.
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