[kbfern]

I can't believe it,

I drove off in my pickup truck last Monday, was going to get on the motorway which is about 5 miles away.As I was driving to the motorway I noticed the fuel gauge was reading empty but did not think anything was amiss as I had put 4 gallon's in the tank on the Friday and had not used the vehicle since.

Initially I was not too worried as I thought the gauge was probably stuck and would correct itself at some stage.As I was about to get on the motorway,fear got the better of me and I though I had better stop and check.

I got out the vehicle and saw the "locking" fuel cap was missing so I did a quick detour to the filling station by the motorway and put some fuel in,which resulted in the fuel gauge now showing its fuel level.

When returning home later and parking up I could see a stain on the drive where the fuel that had been siphoned of had been spilt.

Some cheeky git had siphoned off around 4 galls of diesel from my tank while parked on my drive sometime overnight.

What got me more worked up was if I had not noticed before I got on the motorway I would have run out of fuel which would have been even more hastle and cost

[Iccz]

Shocking, we had a load of travellers here last year that were doing that, luckily me and my family weren't targetted as we were further up the village than where the people were getting hit.
At least you managed to notice before running out and weren't inconvenienced too much.

[Leej]

I wonder if this is a big problem or just isolated instances. That would have been a nightmare running out on the motorway.


Years ago I used to take home the works 7.5 tonne tipper wagon. I went down to the snooker hall in it and when I came back out and turned the key, the battery was flat. It wasn't the most reliable thing at starting so rang a mate to bring some jump leads.

When he came we saw that the battery had been nicked. Got into a lot of trouble for using it other than for too and from work.

[Iccz]

Regarding the post above, this happened a lot in the last recession due to people having money problems... maybe this is a sign of what's yet to come

But chances are it's just a one off and OP was very unlucky.

[Dave]

It is happening a lot, mainly with commercial premises and vehicles being targeted.

Hopefully with prices coming down slowly it will be less of a problem.

[Naaktgeboren]

A good tip is to remove diesel badges from your vehicle if you feel you are living in an area which is targeted.

I even know a guy who had diesel stolen from his work premises on 7 occasions!!!! He got so fed up with it he towed out an old Van and filled it to the brim with a horrible mix of everything bad you can imagine (with a little diesel for effect) Sure enough the next week someone had siphoned 3/4 of the tank.

He just wished he could of seen the end result when they filled up whatever they stole it for

[eric pisch]

be funny if they syphon my diesel, as it contains super unleaded

[mij]

Stick some Electric badges on your car and glue a 13 amp socket to your petrol cap

[Flimber]

Home CCTV is everybody's friend.

[eric pisch]

Originally Posted by Flimber

Home CCTV is everybody's friend.

yep

its always great when you report a crime to the police

"i have just had my tank of derv drained"

"heres your crime code"

"i caught them on CCTV"

"and?"

expect standard letter in 7-10 days

[Epicurus]

Sadly it's even worse for businesses.

We operate a large number of trucks, and they are kept in a security compound overnight. For a period of a few years we were regularly having around 1000 litres of diesel stolen at weekends. We tried many things but they kept on coming. For example you try making the cap inaccessible then they just punch a hole in the tank so it's even more expensive to fix.

The police were no help at all. Eventually after much barracking we persuaded them to do a stakeout one weekend. They sent a male PC and a female community support officer, both in their 20s. That very weekend with the police present, we were raided again. The two "officers" failed to notice anything. I'll let you draw your own conclusions from that...

6 months later one of our drivers who starts early in the morning arrived at work and caught the *******s in the act. He blocked them in with his car and they did a runner, leaving behind all their equipment and pick up truck, along with several 20l drums of our diesel.

We got the police out who said "fantastic" and took away the truck, the equipment and our diesel as evidence. 1 month later and no news. We chase them up and guess what, they can no longer find this vehicle, they have lost it from their yard along with our diesel...

Finally we took the bitter pill and spent £10,000 on our security compound with steel fencing, better lighting, CCTV etc. Since then, touch wood, we've been ok. But others in the area are still regularly being hit, the cost of upgrading compounds is just too much for most small business to afford at the moment sadly, and losses like I described aren't usually covered by business insurance.

Oh and to continue with the police. Earlier this year we got a call that one of our premises was broken into into. The very next morning after seeing that, I got to the hq and saw our steel fencing had been heavily deformed. At first I thought it was someone attempting to ram raid our compound, which was a stupid thing to do as this metal is several mm thick. It was still a lot of damage though. Then when you looked at the angle it was obvious someone had crashed into it inadvertently, probably a drunk driver as this stretch of road is compeltely straight for 1km.

Later that day one of our drivers found the numberplate of the vehicle that hit it had fallen into a bush, result! This should be an easy prosecution and insurance claim, leving the scene of an accident without notifying police, criminal damage etc and an index number to find them.

It took us 7 days and 12 telephone calls to the police just to get them to come the 2miles from the local station and collect the number. It took another 2 weeks to get them to do anything else. Eventually their response was that it was a civil matter and that the person "forgot" to notify the police of the accident. Evidence is only as good as the police officer who collects it, and that is down to pot luck who the computer system assigns it too.

[lostinspace]

Thankfully I've never had this problem. But I do two things which may help. I never fill the car up, so if I was targeted, I wouldn't lose much. And I put the car in the garage!

I know there are many people who don't have garage facilities, but it amazes me the number of people who do have a garage, then fill it so full of rubbish the car won't fit

[Decadence]

Another reason Gypsy thieving scum should be rounded up and removed.