back to article Cops suspect Detroit fuel station was hacked before 10 drivers made off with 2.3k 'free' litres

Police suspect that high-tech thieves may have hacked into a Detroit petrol station before stealing about 600 US gallons (+-2,300 litres) of fuel. Fox News affiliate WJBK reported that the clerk was unable to shut off a pump that dispensed free fuel for 90 minutes. Ten vehicles took advantage of the security hole to fuel up …

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  1. getHandle

    Outrageous!

    50p a litre? Why are we being ripped off so badly at over 120p a litre??

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Outrageous!

      I wish I could find fuel for sale anywhere near my home for as little as 120p per litre

      1. katrinab Silver badge

        Re: Outrageous!

        120.7p per litre is the cheapest I’ve seen recently, at the Morrisons near J9 of the M6. The motorway service stations were charging 147.9p. I don’t know why anyone ever buys from them.

        1. jake Silver badge

          Re: Outrageous!

          $3.899 here in Sonoma, California. Unless you have the space and forethought to purchase in bulk, when the price is low.

          Surprised nobody's made the obvious xenophobic commentardary about "wimpy US gallons".

          1. Scroticus Canis
            Happy

            Re: @jake - "wimpy US gallons"

            Well it's obvious they are talking 600 full-fat imperial gallons giving 2,728 litres as 600 US gallons would be 2,271 litres. So no need for us non-USAians to mention it! :)

            1. jake Silver badge

              Re: @jake - "wimpy US gallons"

              If you'd RTFA, you might have noted that it specifies "US Gallons". But thanks for playing, Scrote.

              1. Santa from Exeter

                Re: @jake - "wimpy US gallons"

                And if you knew your history (which many Septics don't) you'd realise that your precious 'US' gallon is actually a very old English gallon which the rest of the world long abandoned when they moved on. Hint, look up Queen Anne Gallon.

                Thanks for playing Tosspot.

                1. jake Silver badge

                  Re: @jake - "wimpy US gallons"

                  Santa from Exeter, one wonders how one plays Tosspot? Is that another peculiar British eccentricity?

              2. Scroticus Canis

                Re: @jake - "... thanks for playing ..."

                Is it that what comentardery is about?

                I see that they have updated the article to include "US" gallons and correct the miscalculated litre values. Was wondering why Detroit would be using imperial measures ;)

                1. jake Silver badge
                  Pint

                  Re: @jake - "... thanks for playing ..."

                  Scrote, of course that's what it's about :-)

                  When I first read the article, it was already US gallons. Or so I remember ... And it took place in Detroit, after all, so the Police Report would have been in US gallons.

                  Whatever. It's one of those stories that's ripe for daftness, especially when you take into account (un)intentional cross-pond (mis)translation. Beer?

          2. Fruit and Nutcase Silver badge
            Paris Hilton

            Re: Outrageous!

            "wimpy US gallons"

            Taking 1 US Gallon = 0.00378541 M3

            The Reg Standards Converter gives

            6.5723 Bulgarian airbag (C-cup Posh Spice)

            or

            2.2109 Bulgarian funbag (DD-cup Jordan)

            With 1 Imperial Gallon = 0.00454609 M3

            7.8931 Bulgarian airbag (C-cup Posh Spice)

            or

            2.6552Bulgarian funbag (DD-cup Jordan

            1. onefang

              Re: Outrageous!

              Looking at your icon, I'm wondering why we don't have a B-cup Paris unit? American airhead? Useful for smaller quantities. Probably should be an A-cup unit to, just for the sake of completeness.

          3. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Outrageous!

            @jake; Don't worry, no-one's going to make fun of your dinky little gallons. We appreciate that you're obviously so paranoid about the size of your mini gallons that you consider a little joking "xenophobic" and raised the subject before it even happened.

            So there certainly won't be any mockery regarding any alleged preference your country's women might have for a big, fat imperial gallon over the modestly-sized homegrown version. No, sir.

            Similarly, I appreciate that your "pints" are also smaller for good reason- it's so that there's enough space left over when you add that much beer to a *real* pint glass that you can top it up with lemonade for a delicious, refreshing glass of shandy. (#) Mmm.

            (#) Although this is also available to Americans in a pre-mixed form known as "Budweiser".

            1. jake Silver badge

              Re: Outrageous!

              One wonders why the AC is so vigorously defending British pints and gallons. I though you lot had teh metrics these days.

          4. Prst. V.Jeltz Silver badge

            Re: Outrageous!

            Surprised nobody's made the obvious xenophobic commentardary about "wimpy US gallons".

            I think thats because El Reg helpfully translated into Liters annd pounds so we could compare seamlessly - although the figure being banded around (50p / litre ) is out by some margin ...

            £1360 / 2300 L = 59p

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Outrageous!

          I don’t know why anyone ever buys from them.

          Because most of us who use them regularly have fuel cards. We don't actually pay that much...not nearly that much. Last I saw, we were paying about £1.06.

          The only people who pay full price are the poor sods desperate for fuel who can't find anything else nearby. Or when someone else is paying...

          1. katrinab Silver badge

            Re: Outrageous!

            Presumably +VAT which would = £1.272, still more expensive than Morrisons.

            The wholesale cost of a litre of crude oil + tax is £1.141 per litre, and that doesn't allow anything for refining, delivery, petrol station running costs and so on, so they are not going to sell you it at £1.06.

            Morrisons + Grenergy (oil refinery jointly owned by Morrisons and Tesco) make 5.5p per litre in gross margin which covers all the costs in getting crude oil from the oil field, turning it into petrol, shipping it to the store and paying all the wages & so on at the petrol station.

    2. Korev Silver badge

      Re: Outrageous!

      A combination of fuel duty and the weak pound...

      1. Lee D Silver badge

        Re: Outrageous!

        A weak pound worth $1.32?

        1. Korev Silver badge
          Childcatcher

          Re: Outrageous!

          >A weak pound worth $1.32?

          It was only a decade ago that each pound bought over $2.

          1. jake Silver badge

            Re: Outrageous!

            The first year I lived in England, it was $2.50 to the pound.

      2. BillG
        Facepalm

        Re: Outrageous!

        the clerk was unable to shut off a pump that dispensed free fuel for 90 minutes

        What about putting one of those bright yellow bags that say "Out of Order" over the nozzle?

        1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

          Re: Outrageous!

          What about putting one of those bright yellow bags that say "Out of Order" over the nozzle?"

          ...and calling the cops after the first drive-off, not 90 minutes later when s/he figured out where the emergency stop button was.

        2. Jtom

          Re: Outrageous!

          What about writing down the tag numbers and telling drivers they will be reported for theft? I think the attendant was either sleeping, or selling the gas for cash at a discount.

          1. Peter2 Silver badge

            Re: Outrageous!

            What about writing down the tag numbers and telling drivers they will be reported for theft? I think the attendant was either sleeping, or selling the gas for cash at a discount.

            Garages have CCTV for that, as it's more useful in a court case so they ought to be able to do that anyway.

            The problem was probably that the attendant a minimum wage employee, and didn't know what to do in that situation and wasn't willing to make any kind of judgement call lest he or she be fired for doing "the wrong thing" by an opressively sociopathic manager, who themselves has sod all decision making autonomy and so just enjoys lording it over their staff.

            Remember that IT employees are generally given more lattitude to make these sort of decisions than many other workers can dream of. Personally, after thinking about it for about 2 minutes i'd pull the emergency stop on that row of pumps, stick up an "out of order" sign, and then force people to use the other pumps and call in manglement to figure things out. But again, that is probably more lattitude than the poor sods doing that sort of job are allowed to exercise.

        3. Prst. V.Jeltz Silver badge

          Re: Outrageous!

          the clerk was unable to shut off a pump that dispensed free fuel for 90 minutes

          What about putting one of those bright yellow bags that say "Out of Order" over the nozzle?

          ...or a sign saying "please pay, obvs"

          Thinking about it , all the pumps in the UK dispense fuel you havent paid for yet , but we then go and pay afterward. I wonder if any americans have come over here and thought "Hey this pumps giving out free fuel!"

          1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

            Re: Outrageous!

            "Thinking about it , all the pumps in the UK dispense fuel you havent paid for yet , "

            Not all. Most of the supermarkets have at least half their pumps with pay by card. Being usually the cheapest, that's where I go so I can't speak for other forecourts.

            1. Prst. V.Jeltz Silver badge

              Re: Outrageous!

              Yeah but you can still use those pumps in the traditional way right?

              1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

                Re: Outrageous!

                "Yeah but you can still use those pumps in the traditional way right?"

                Yes, push the button to say "pay at kiosk". Does that not happen in the US too?

                1. Prst. V.Jeltz Silver badge

                  Re: Outrageous!

                  " Does that not happen in the US too?"

                  I'm not American , but from the story it appears that americans cannot be trusted not to hot foot it, rootin and tootin, firing their guns in the air , yelling viva las vegas , over the horizon given the sight of any sort of machine that dispenses fuel without first having taken payment!

                  1. jake Silver badge

                    Re: Outrageous!

                    Mr. V.Jeltz, that's a nice imagination you have been provided by the entertainment industry. Shame you may have lost the use of your own.

                    1. Prst. V.Jeltz Silver badge

                      Re: Outrageous!

                      "that's a nice imagination you have been provided by the entertainment industry."

                      Well im having to use my imagination and read between the line because it seems basically nobody knows what happened!

                      "Dispensed free fuel" ?

                      Like the shelves in the shop dispense free magazines?

                      whats the tech angle?

                      Sounds to me like a gang of pikey driveaway merchants went on a spree and it had nothing to do with the electronics in the pump.

                      What I'm saying is - what has apparently occurred could happen anywhere anytime and does not require a haxxed pump!

                2. jake Silver badge

                  Re: Outrageous!

                  Yes, you can pay at the "kiosk" (You know that word's not English, right? Still, it's better than "bloody hut", I guess). You can pay in cash, by debit card, or by credit card ... and I still see the odd LOL write a check occasionally (I refuse to use "cheque", it smells French).

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Outrageous!

      50p a litre? Why are we being ripped off so badly at over 120p a litre??

      Easy; fuel duty on diesel/petrol is 57.95 pence per litre, plus VAT @ 20% on the total fuel+fuel duty.

      Whether you like being taxed that way or some other is, of course, ultimately a political choice.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Outrageous!

        Don't forget that most of that is green taxes from the Climate Change Act - cut those out and the duty becomes reasonable.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Outrageous!

          Don't forget that most of that is green taxes from the Climate Change Act - cut those out and the duty becomes reasonable.

          Not really. The Climate Change Act has certainly driven up the costs of many things, primarily through the higher cost of electricity. And it is a Work of Great Stupidity, but it isn't really driving petrol and diesel taxes.

          Road fuel duties have always been simply a source of ready income where people's desire for mobility is such that they'll pay whatever, and that's not a "carbon tax", it's just the leeches of Westminster taking money wherever they can. Even the "climate taxes" themselves are bollocks, and were never about a genuine "carbon tax", as the EU-approved cost exemptions for "energy intensive industries" shows - and in that case, the lower duty for companies in mining, metals processing and the like are then added to the cost of non-energy intensive users, as business electricity customers will know to their cost.

        2. Gene Cash Silver badge

          Re: Outrageous!

          > Don't forget that most of that is green taxes from the Climate Change Act - cut those out and the duty becomes reasonable.

          And people wonder why the US refused to be a party to that...

    4. James O'Shea

      Re: Outrageous!

      I was just going to say that gas is expensive in Detroit, $1800 for 600 gallons is $3/gallon. It’s $2.64 here in Deepest South Florida, and could be as low as $2.49. If anyone tried to overcharge Los Hijos de Cuba, or, especially, their sisters, Las Latinas Brava, they would learn Spanish wods and phrases not usually taught in schools. And then their language instructors would drive off and buy elsewhere, while continuing the language instruction out the window, at length and at high volume. If someone even thought about 120p/litre, Los Hijos would expend more than mere words.

      1. dmacleo

        Re: Outrageous!

        about 2.82 $ here in maine right now, +/- a bit of course depending on actual location and store

        1. James O'Shea

          Re: Outrageous!

          Maine has, I think, relatively few Cubans. You can have some of ours. No, take them, we won't mind, and no, we won't take Quebecois in exchange, we have more than enough of 'em in snowbird season as it is. I'm typing this from a KFC in Hialeah. I am literally the only non-Cuban on premises. The girl at the counter had to call her supervisor to translate; it was most amusing to listen to her Spanish and not let on that I understood what she was saying. This was at the KFC on 49th St... that is, Calle 49. In Hialeah and Doral, every single billboard I see is in Spanish; in Kendal, at least half. If you no habla around here, you're in serious shit... mierda. Whatever. And anyone who doesn't think that Las Latinas Brava can out-cuss anyone, even Linus Thorvalds, hasn't heard 'em in action. Their motto is 'I am Latina, hear me roar', and this is their signature image: https://jokideo.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/lioness-roaring-at-lion.jpg (Note: do NOT forget your anniversary or her birthday. You WILL be sorry.)

        2. Jamesit

          Re: Outrageous!

          Where I live the price is about a 1.45/litre

    5. Stevie

      Re: Outrageous!

      Tee-hee.

      Drive into the small towns south of the Mason-Dixon line and it gets even cheaper.

      This was one of the reasons I decided to stay here rather than return to my increasingly expensive homeland.

      Here in NY people like us (earning a middle-class wage) can afford to do a Clark Griswold job on their houses at Christmas if they want, because energy is cheap. It's even cheaper down south, but they don't get much snow. Gotta have snow for that "twinklin' in the glow of the house" effect.

      1. jake Silver badge

        Re: Outrageous!

        Snow's all very nice and all, but the weather during the other 9 months of the year make the entire country East of the Rockies unlivable to humans who have lived elsewhere, sans humidity, deer/horse/black flies, mosquitoes, roaches & other bits & bobs. I suspect there is a reason ElReg has offices in SF and not NY ... and it ain't technology related.

        1. Pascal Monett Silver badge

          Re: the entire country East of the Rockies unlivable to humans

          I lived for four years in Boulder, Colorado for four years and they were the best four years of my childhood.

          Right at the feet of the Rockies, you took the car and twenty minutes later you lost in the wilderness.

          Gorgeous.

          To this day, 40 years later I still love mountains.

          And we didn't have no roaches.

          1. jake Silver badge

            Re: the entire country East of the Rockies unlivable to humans

            Boulder touches the Rockies, thus not "east of". Same for Denver. Note I didn't say anything about the Continental Divide.

        2. Jtom

          Re: Outrageous!

          But at least the rest of the country doesn't smell like piss, isn't covered in feces, nor must tiptoe around used needles. Once you run out of potable water you will well and truly be a third-world city.

          1. jake Silver badge

            Re: Outrageous!

            If you're talking to me about that hell-hole known as San Francisco, you couldn't pay me enough to live there. It's in the top three miss-managed cities in the nation, in my opinion ... the other two are Berkeley and Oakland in no particular order. Followed closely by any other East Bay city, followed immediately by BART (if it were a city, which legally it very nearly is).

            Feel better now, Jtom?

            1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

              Re: Outrageous!

              "If you're talking to me about that hell-hole known as San Francisco, you couldn't pay me enough to live there."

              According to a BBC report today, if you are in the bottom end of a 6 figure salary and living in SF you'd be classed as "poor" and may be able to claim housing assistance. So yeah, you need to be paid a lot to live there :-)

              1. jake Silver badge

                Re: Outrageous!

                I know how expensive it is to live in The City, Mr. (no body). I lived there briefly once, about thirty years ago. It was a hell-hole then, and it's worse today. It's not that cost that keeps me away, it's the fact that it's a horrible place to live ... ESPECIALLY seeing that you can live in a much nicer location for well under half the money not 25 miles away from SF City Hall.

    6. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Outrageous!

      130p - 146p / litre for Diesel where I am.

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