Gas thief -- is this going to be karma for them?

[Cygnet]

Had a 5 gallon gas can go missing from where I left it beside the chicken coop. Been there for months. Gas in it is, conservative estimate, two years old. About half evaporated, so 2 1/2 gallons of sludge. Gas can has been sitting in the sun all summer, Arizona summer. Also, has oil in the gas. (I was using it for the weed whacker before the weed whacker died and I convinced a neighbor to just blade my yard to bare dirt.)

I'd been planning to use it for getting the burn barrel going. Hasn't been wet enough to allow for safe burning here at a convenient time for me, so it's just been sitting.

Anyway -- somebody's swiped it.

If they put that gas in their gas tank, what's the odds of them doing significant damage to the vehicle? Please tell me, "high" ... I am hoping karma gets 'em where it hurts. (Plus they left my gate open and the dogs could have gotten out. THe dogs were going ape around 3 AM so I suspect the person managed to get to the gas can without waking them and then got run off by the dogs.)

Nothing else taken, including two full cannisters of propane sitting in the bed of my pickup -- so whoever it was, was likely just after the gas.

I dearly hope karma gets 'em.

I'm wondering if this was the same person my dogs chased over the fence a few months ago. Bent the fence all up.

(We don't have a lot of crime out here; I suspect I know who the guilty culprit is. I just can't prove it.)

[MELOC]

chances are the thief will not suffer too much (unless you catch him, lol). he may foul his plugs a bit from the crappy gas with the oil in it. you may be able to see his vehicle smoking a bit, especially if he had so little gas that he really needed those 2.5 gallons. if he does have trouble running the vehicle, he will probably be ok if he just fills the tank and then runs it out.

[uncle Will in In.]

It really surprises me that we don't hear of a lot of gas stealing going on.
Back in the 40s and 50s it was very common to find your gas tank almost empty when it had ample gas in it when you parked it the night before. Locking gas caps were purchased by a large percent of the car owners.
And gas was less than 35 cents per gallon. Jobs that pay $8 to $10 dollars an hour now would have paid around $1 per hour then. At either price, it would take around 20 minutes work to buy one gallon.
I knew guys who called a piece of garden hose "A Midnight credit card"

[MWG]

Depending on what he drives, it could be VERY expensive. For instance... heard this, not actual experience...

While putting old gas in a flex fuel vehicle I found out there is such a thing as a fuel composition sensor. What this does it calculate the amount of E85 to regular gasoline and adjust the injection. When bad fuel goes though this sensor it will burn it up. That sensor, part alone is $650. It has to be purchased from the dealership.

He may have cost himself dearly!

[turtlehead]

We've had a car get its lines clogged and nastified from off-brand but new gas. So this stuff might really hose up their lines. Had to have everything taken apart and cleaned out, because by the time we noticed the bad performance it was too late to dump in good gas and some gas cleaner stuff

[Honorine]

A lot of the newer cars can't be siphoned, some sort of guard in them, or so my mechanic says.

[harrisjnet]

In our little community we had a gas thief making the rounds a few months ago. Us and several of the neighbors baited them. We had gas cans full of gas with sugar added set in some locations that were easy accessed. Several people had seen a grey car late at night or early in the mornings. The car had no business being here that anyone knew of. I still don't know who the car belonged to, but it was on the side of the road for a couple of days after the baited gas was taken. Haven't seen it since and we haven't lost anymore gas.

[famer_manda]

lol harrisjnet that was a good idea!!

Cynet put another thing of gas out there with some sugar :P

I hope you catch whoever it was.

[frogmammy]

If you want to have fun, bait the person. Put another can out there with gas in it and get some professional pastry coloring (still comes in a tube, I believe) in a "becoming color" (pink, maybe?) and smear it on the outside of the can and for sure, around the cap.

The pastry coloring cannot be washed off, has to WEAR off...and you could catch the person red-handed, so to speak.

Mon

[MWG]

You could also put diesel in a red gas can. Then you would have some good diesel if they didn't take it! (Not sure if you have anything that uses it...)

[longshadowfarms]

Originally Posted by uncle Will in In.

It really surprises me that we don't hear of a lot of gas stealing going on.
Back in the 40s and 50s it was very common to find your gas tank almost empty when it had ample gas in it when you parked it the night before. Locking gas caps were purchased by a large percent of the car owners.
And gas was less than 35 cents per gallon. Jobs that pay $8 to $10 dollars an hour now would have paid around $1 per hour then. At either price, it would take around 20 minutes work to buy one gallon.
I knew guys who called a piece of garden hose "A Midnight credit card"

Mostly they do it at the gas stations now. They fill up and just drive off. Lots of places now make you prepay, prepay at night or have cameras installed to get a pic of your license plate as you drive off.

[Argent Farms]

Sugar doesn't do much. On tyhe TV show "Mythbusters" they added a whole bunch of sugar to a gas tank and it really didn't affect the motor at all.

But the gas they they had added bleach to caused the car to conk out after about 5 minutes, and it rusted up the gas tank pretty bad. So if you are planning on being sneaky, add bleach!

[Danaus29]

Dh's darling brother once put 2 cycle gas in our car, it took forever before the engine ran right again. Coughed, sputtered, and blew out blue smoke for days! This was a '79 engine, 4 cyl. With some newer cars it just might mess up the injectors or at the very least clog the fuel filter. Even that little bit costs big $$$ if you have to take the car to the shop.

I've never heard that newer cars can't be siphoned. I know my '00 van can be, it happened once.

[YoungOne]

Regarding syphoning....

SOME newer cars have little check (spring) valve in the fill line so that if you shove a tube in there it probably won't make it out. A state trooper decided to shove past the one in the work truck last summer when checking for red diesel. When it didn't imediately come out she tried to tell me to drive on down the road to the chevron in quartzite. Luckily her superviser had some "experience" with the check valve, he pulled a coat hanger out the trunck and shoved it down the pipe toit opened the valve and released the stuck tube.

[omnicat]

I've heard that the alternate to actually stealing GAS, is people stealing rear license plates. THEN they go "pump and run" at the gas station, and the owner of the stolen plate gets the call from the authorities.

Might be prudent to take a ganger at the back of your car and make sure the plate's still on. I expect this is more of a "city" crime, though...

[sullen]

Originally Posted by MWG

While putting old gas in a flex fuel vehicle I found out there is such a thing as a fuel composition sensor. What this does it calculate the amount of E85 to regular gasoline and adjust the injection.

Gosh I hope you're not the one driving a fuel flex vehicle....That corn is GM corn.

[BigBoy]

regarding baiting... gas will float on top of water so fill a gas can with water and then add a pint or so of gas to it. The gas will float on top to make the can smell like it's full of gas. The thief gets a load of water, tho.

[MWG]

Originally Posted by sullen

Gosh I hope you're not the one driving a fuel flex vehicle....That corn is GM corn.

Yep, that's me. I have never used E85 since it is the same price and the reduction in fuel mileage. It would need to be around 2 bucks a gallon to be worth buying...

I bought the truck used and didn't figure out it was a flex fuel until months later when I noticed it on the back of the gas door...

[magnolia2017]

Last year after the hurricanes and the local gas shortages there were many gas cans stolen in our area and many people calling and offering outrageous prices for just a gallon of gas. As for driving off without paying for gas, here they take your license away for that if you're caught.

Maggie

[ann]

I heard that while sugar won't hurt the car that a jar of honey will. Don't know if its so or not.