With the price of gas, a little jail time for some free gas does not sound so bad. Rotate my tires and I will even do some solitary

15 times in 3 weeks? I was going to be outraged at the waste until I realized the kids were just filling all their friends' cars too.

You'll never catch me, coppers!

Wow, so you mean my license has information on it that you can use to catch me? Oh, that's the whole ideal of a license and ID in general? OK.

/dumbasses

Do some licenses have mag-strips on them? I know NY doesn't.. Odd that it wouldn't be standardized..

Ah, Meijer, Purveyors Of Bootleg Shoepolish & the favorite Hyper-Mart of FARK. I meant to submit this with a funnier headline...if you read the WDIV Detroit/Free Press versions of this story there's a promise of leniency if you turn yourself in. Since there's no quotes from the busted parties, a friend calls bullshiat on it-I woulda used my Kinko's card personally.

If they were smart, they would have done it with someone else's license.

RIT shut off long distance calling from the dorms and apartments a few years ago, but left 10-10-220 and others open for awhile. My roomates used to make hours and hours of long distance phone calls and never got a bill for it.

I'm just here for the gasoline.

/Mad Max

I hope they get jail time. I have to pay for my gas.

Yes, Michigan (where I live unfortunatly) has the stripe on the back of the card. What is funny is that we have law here about gas theft:

Misdemeanor, punishable by up to 93 days in jail and $500 fine AND suspension of drivers license (IIRC it's 2+ year suspension) for EACH offense.

Detroit News Article

So what exactly are the police going to do?

If someone gives away free gasoline - even by mistake, where's the law that says you can't take it?

"I wouldn't have taken your crappy gasoline, if I knew I was going to have to pay. You set it out for the taking, and now demand that everyone who took it free make you rich, after the fact."

The Detroit News article suggests that these stations don't validate the cards before they allow you to pump gas. The "fix" is probably just a check to make sure the number matches a credit card format instead of a license number format. So feel free to continue using cancelled credit cards (other peoples, of course).

Got gas?

If the driver's license number is stored on a standard credit card "track 2", and if the site has any kind of logs, the number goes right into them.

That being said, once I was helping debug a site that was running beta software. Turns out that the place hadn't yet gotten its store credit card system going yet, and there was a bug in the software that gave out free gas if you swiped the store credit card. Not my fault, but I passed the news up real quick. The customers who couldn't be arsed to RTFI would swipe the store credit card instead of their member card. And it gave them gas, so they knew they must have done it right.

It's one thing to have your site broken and giving out free gas, but it's another thing to give out free gas and the customers don't even know it's free.

Cosimo

Are you English or retarded?

You can never overestimate the stupidity of people.

I was going to suggest the headline "The only free gas you get is from beans."

Cosimo,
Bullshiat, its theft. They cheated a broken card reader. They found a way to get gas free from a pump when they should have paid for it. The cops can charge for theft. How about if you take some Ice from a store, even if the doors were not locked on the freezer. If you did not pay for it, you stole it.

Looks like car-ma has struck again. Bwaaahaha.

Cosimo So what exactly are the police going to do? If someone gives away free gasoline - even by mistake, where's the law that says you can't take it?

They weren't giving it away, even by accident. The students were committing fraud. They found out that they could trick the gas pumps into thinking a valid credit card was inserted when it was not.

//oh, and (articles I got posted)++;

So if you're one of these kids, report your license as stolen. Then they have to prove it was actually you that took the gas.

My first thought was that they can't catch you. They want people to stop doing it and maybe even get some suckers to turn themselves in. I say be cool and you'll never be caught or punished.

Hell, the cops once told me that they had an eye witness, physical evidence and the word of my roommate against me and it was all a lie.

/"Tell em nuthin and they got nuthin" says Jimmy

b1t r0t

You have a website that sells gas? Amazing!

/thanks SA

Weaver95

"Just goes to show that a college degree doesen't make you smart - just educated."

Little bitter about not getting that degree?

/...waiting to hear how much smarter he is than the college kids.

//...I truly enjoy the wit and wisdom of Weaver95

I found someones drivers license on the ground.

What if I used theirs? That mean they would get arrested and not me?

That being said, i REALLY hate that magnetic strip on my drivers license. Once when I was at 7-11 and they carded me for smokes (tho im friggin 30) they took my license and swiped it through some machine. I was like WTF was that for?

Since then I went to the DMV website and ordered an 'updated' license. all that is is they mail you a big sticker you put on the back of your drivers license to show its been updated. It also makes it un-swipable.

I'm guessing that state is going to get a lot of "lost driver's licenses" need a replacement requests pretty soon. I'm not sure there is a good way to prove who did this unless the station actually had pictures of the person doing this. I think they are just trying to get dumb people to confess.

/not endorsing theft though

Inyego One little problem, all the Meijer gas stations (not to mention every other gas station in Michigan) have Video CAmeras pointing at each pump...

Pump logs with Date + Video footage of asshats filling up mean your idea won't work.

Most gas stations also have video cameras at the pumps. If they still have the tape, they could prove you were using the license at the time too.

Damn you FarkonCorpsemaker and damn forums.fark.com for being so damned slow.

I wonder if it was just ~any~ mag strip card? I've got like 20 that don't have my personal information on them.

need, michigan, tag

I love that the article stated that the gas company got "hosed".

/stealing is not funny though ;)

2004-05-05 02:33:16 PM scootah


I wonder if it was just ~any~ mag strip card? I've got like 20 that don't have my personal information on them.

You test that out and get back to us on that one.

2004-05-05 01:55:16 PM Schwhat

If they were smart, they would have done it with someone else's license.

How do you know they didn't?

2004-05-05 02:17:56 PM Weaver95

Just goes to show that a college degree doesen't make you smart - just educated.

These were students... they don't have a degree yet.

2004-05-05 02:23:19 PM Pocket Ninja

just as big of thieves as the asshats who steal music online just because it's available

Wrong. These kids were physically stealing something from the store. Copyright infringement is not stealing (although it is illegal, so don't do it) and don't say they are the same, we're talking about legal definitions here and the laws are very clear about the differences.

OK, I'm done nitpicking...

Steal gas. See if I care.
You're only hurting Bush and his oil cronies.
/flamebait ++