Gas theft is the removal of gasoline from a station without payment. The thief will usually use some form of decoy to prevent nearby witnesses from noticing the lack of payment until they have left the station. Common decoys include pretending to press the wrong buttons after swiping the credit card, or having multiple people get gas at the same time with one paying for another person and the other running off with both cars.

With typical gas thefts costing station owners in the range of $50 per incident, many stores have fought back by installing better video equipment and possibly requiring pre-payment. http://www.gastheft.com is a registry for store owners to keep records of gas theft incidents.

Theft