And I Thought It Was Just Me

I read this amazing story at Tidbits of Tammy. The exact same thing happened to me, but I thought I had somehow forgotten how much my gas tank could hold. This now makes me very suspicious:

This is a true story, so read it carefully!

April 24, 2008, I stopped at a Kangaroo BP gas station, located at 1325 Main Street, Cartersville,GA. My truck’s gas gauge was on 1/4 of a tank. I use the mid-grade,which was priced at $3.71 per gallon. When my tank is at this point, it takes somewhere around 14 gallon’s to fill it up. When the pump showed 14 gallons had been pumped I began to slow it down, then to my surprise it went to 15, then 16. I even looked under my truck to see if it was being spilled. It was not. Then it showed 17 gallons had been pumped. It stopped at almost 18 gallons. This was very strange to me,since my truck has only an 18 gallon tank. I went on my way a little confused, then on the evening news I heard a report that 1 out of 4 gas stations had calibrated their pumps to show more gas had been pumped than a person actually got.

Holy cow! This is CRIMINAL! See, I have a minivan, and the manual says it holds 13-14 gallons of gas. However, there have been occasions where my van slurped up much more than that. At the time, I thought it strange, but I figured I must have misread the manual (we have had six minivans over our lifetime). Maybe I am still in the wrong, because I lost the manual and can’t check. However, I’m going to be paying attention more frequently to how many gallons go in the tank! Here’s more from Tammy:

Here is how to check a pump to see if you are getting the right amount: Whichever grade you are using, put EXACTLY 10 GALLONS in your tank, then look at the dollar amount, if the dollar amount is not EXACTLY 10 times the price of the fuel you have chosen,then the pumps are rigged. In my case as I said the mid-grade was $3.71 9/10 per gallon, my dollar amount for 10 gallons should have been $37.19.

I’m also going to refrain from those attendant-served gas stations. One time we were swindled by a teenager when he charged our card more than our gas cost. My husband decided not to press the issue (although I was ready to throw the kid in jail, because I just KNEW he was swindling other motorists).

Anyway, pay attention at the pump! Gas is expensive enough with the government tax crooks and the oil exec crooks stealing from us!