[TheDude]

ksn.com

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'C')HARLESTON, West Virginia, Jan. 22, 2008 (NBC) -- West Virginia police say a gas station clerk was giving her friends gas at a tenth of a cent per gallon, adding up to tens of thousands of dollars in lost revenue.

It happened at the Spring Hill BP station in South Charleston. Detectives say the owner of the gas station contacted them last week because his accounts were not adding up. He found that records were tampered with and noticed a trend of $.001 per gallon sales on Sunday mornings.

Police set up a sting and caught the clerk's friends lined up even before the station opened at 7am with dozens of gas cans in hand.

Officers arrested the clerk, Madeline Jordan, 25 of Nitro; her mother, Mary Jordan, 58 of Charleston; her brother, John Jordan, 27 of Charleston; her cousin, Vonnie Oldham, 38 of Leon; Clifford Parker, 47 of Leon; and Glennis Fields, 39 of Dunbar.

All six are charged with fraudulent schemes and have been taken to the South Central Regional Jail.

The pumps were still set at $.001 when crews arrived on scene.

[frankthetank]

South Central Regional Jail.... Now that just has "ghetto" written all over it!

Pretty good scheme they had going on there. I wonder if they'll have to siphon the gas out of those automobiles?

[efarmer]

All hail, Maddy of Nitro, fair and merciful Princess of Petrol.
If I were an attorney, I would advise to plead that it was an
ill conceived but well intentioned "economic stimulus package"
with targeted fine granularity for selected community applications.
I have finally seen the fruition of trickle down economics.

[raober]

I know the area. I know the population. Believe me, I am not surprised.

The South Central Regional Jail actually is just a hop, skip and a jump from a huge shopping/restaurant/business area...y'know, our growth-based, resource-hogging economy at its finest.

Also...Nitro does, in fact, derive its name from nitroglycerine...which was produced in the area during the earlier part of last century. One name for the stretch of the Kanawha River between Charleston and St Albans is the "Chemical Valley"...Dow and other big corporations have (or had, due to globalization) plants there. Driving through the area does occasionally yield some interesting smells...