Gas thieves pumped up by high gas prices

Gas-and-dashes are something Nova Scotia gas attendant Tristan Turcott knows well.

In the three years he’s worked at the Young Street Tiger Express Esso in Halifax, he’s seen motorists pull all kinds of things, just to get out of paying for gas.


“Some will come to the cash, pay for a pack of gum then jump in their car and take off,” he said. “Or they come in and when we ask them if they have gas, they lie and just leave.”

Then there are the motorists who slowly fill up their gas tank, calmly get in their car and then at the last moment, hightail it out of the station when the gas attendants turn away.

It’s something his gas station deals with at least three times a week.

And with prices rising as high as $1.34 per litre in some parts of the country, Turcott – along with gas attendants across the country – is braced for the number of gas thefts to also spike.

Canwest News Service