[entropyfails]

I just wanted to report that a band of thieves has taken to drilling for oil illegally in Minneapolis, MN... inside the gas tank of my sister’s car! They hit two cars on the ground floor of a parking garage in the downtown area. The put some sort of container on the ground and drilled into the gas tank to steal the gas. What seems hilarious to me is that her car is a small Kia with a 13 gallon tank. They didn’t even pick an SUV! If you are going to risk your life to steal something, it should be worth more than 40 bucks. *sigh*

So while gas theft has been a long tradition in the US, I believe that if $3.00 gas gets the small minded criminal element to break out the power tools we may be much closer to them breaking out the guns than we realize.

Be safe all!

[pedalling_faster]

how about going down to the local Industrial Metal Supply and getting some 3/16" aluminum Trenchplate (it's kind of shiny, with an elongated diamond pattern).

they make those things for the back of pick-up trucks out of it. and tool chests. i have a 4 x 4 piece i used to de-burglar-ize one of my windows the last place i lived.

anyway, i don't know what the underside of a Kia looks like, but there's got to be brackets, bolts, rods, etc. that you can use to SECURELY fasten a piece of trench-plate to cover the gas tank area.

if it was me i'd go to home depot for Screw eyes, threaded U-thingies, etc., to hold the thing in place.

if you go for Canadian style bolts - just a square, like an Allen wrench, but square - or the kind of bolt that is just domed with NO phillip, slot, allen, well, they're gonna have a hard time getting to that gas tank with their drill.

i wouldn't be surprised if this became a widely selling product. i'm just working on my Mad max product line.

i think the basic idea in deterring theft is to make the theft inconvenient. if it takes more than five minutes to extract the gasoline, they will go look for easier pickings.

on the luxury version of the Gas Tank Protector, maybe there would be a way to hit the person holding the drill with a few thousand volts.

i guess we have a few years to finish that prototype.