OT: Gasoline Theft

[bmattock]

The OP said his car is a 1995 model, probably too old to have that system. I have a 1995 car too, a big gas guzzling Chevy Caprice. It gets horrid milage, but its worth it because people are such bad drivers where I live. I have been in 14 accidents, only one of which (when I was 16) was my fault. The others were people who ran stop lights or who pulled out of parking lots into traffic and hit me. My big car has saved me life more than once and it has never been seriously damaged. The people who hit me totaled thier cars!

I have a 2005 Kia Sorento, not a 1995. My wife has my old Jeep Cherokee. I tried to get her to take the newer car, but she loves the Cherokee. It runs pretty well for a 2000.

I like the bigger cars too, for safety. Also both ours have 4WD and locking differentials (paid extra to get that in the Cherokee). Real low-range transfer cases, not that hokey AWD stuff. We have hurricanes in NC and snow storms in MI. 4WD is often a requirement to get around.

I've only been in one accident in my life, I was hit from behind. My wife got t-boned at a traffic light, guy ran the light and hit her in her Toyota Camry. It came out pretty well. Still, I prefer her driving the Jeep.

 

[NickTrop]

Price per barrel of oil in 2003? $25 per barrel.
Price per barrel of oil in 2008? Over $100 per barrel.

Quadrupled - thank's a lot Republicans!

And I DO remember, while "White Water" was going on, them screaming like stuck pigs because of modest increases in prices under Clinton. Blame Clinton!!!

Now? The crickets chirp...

Funny innit, we have an oil man as POTUS - and wha happens? Price per barrel of oil quadruples, oil companies having record profits. Why if I didn't know better...

And what else is a good investment now? One of the very few? Why companies that are war profiteers, like Haliburton, of course. And what was our illustrious VP CEO of? And what is his stock portfolio worth now? Like I said, if I didn't know any better...

Locking gas caps it is, I guess. Gas caps with locks for my car, and while I'm at the auto parts store, might as well buy a siphon. Trick is to prevent others from siphoning your gas, as you siphon from someone else. SUVs are best.

 

[kuzano]

About burglary not paying-
People who used to buy things at pawn shops to save a couple of bucks now shop at WalMart and the like. Consumer electronics and such have just gotten too cheap to be worth stealing, or at least that is my take.

Well, the thieves are not even taking the stuff out the stores. They are lifting items, walking around the store for a while and then taking the items up to the returns counter and getting cash refunds... yes, without the receipts. My nephew, who is now a police officer, used to work security at Fred Meyers (big box) store. Shoplifting thrives, with stuff walking out the doors every day, but the bold lifters are walking away with cash.

Oh, and I don't know where the poster lives who thinks gas is not beings stolen, but the industrial area where I have a shop rented gets hit 4 or 5 times a week. Locked gas caps or not. One trick is to use those flat oil drain containers and just punch a hole in the tank.

 

[kuzano]

One minor overlook there.....

One minor overlook there.....

Funny innit, we have an oil man as POTUS - and wha happens?

A very unsuccessful oil man. Why do we continue to overlook that GW never really accomplished anything successful in his life. We have a "C" average prez in the white house for 8 years now. Did he really earn the "C's"?

 

[NickTrop]

For what it is worth, I heard on NPR the other night that there is a very strange phenomena going on - home burglaries are dropping, but unlike other crime statistics, they don't seem to go in waves of up and down - they keep dropping and dropping and dropping.

They interviewed a guy who used to be a second-story man. He had an explanation - everybody's got everything now, nobody wants any second-hand trinkets. Everybody has a TV, a VCR, a DVD player, a cordless phone and walkman and etc, etc. He says he quit because he could not sell the stuff anymore - no one wants it.

Funny. Kind of.

True that. And interesting. People also don't keep much cash in the house anymore with debit cards, not necessary. Anecdotally, also, it seems folks don't buy as much jewelery as they used to, furs are kinda out. It's all electronic gadgets these days that simply don't have the same kind of resell value as the "old school" conspicuous consumption stuff.