A Nebraska woman allegedly found a lucrative quirk at a gas station pump — double-swipe the rewards card and get free gas!
Unfortunately for her, you can’t do that, prosecutors said. The 45-year-old woman was arrested March 6 and faces felony theft charges accusing her of a crime that cost the gas station nearly $28,000.
Prosecutors say the woman exploited the system over a period of several months. Police learned of the problem in October when the loss-prevention manager at Bosselman Enterprises reported that the company’s Pump & Pantry in Lincoln had been scammed.
To all the people defending her, how is this different than just pumping and driving away? You could always pump first and pay inside later, and it works on the honour system. In this case she clearly intentionally circumvented paying.
It’s different in that they gave her a card that says “here is a discount”.
If you go into a store, pay with a stack of coupons from that store and walk out with a free chicken, can the store come back and charge you with a felony because they made a mistake and claim they didn’t really mean to print the coupon?
How far can this go? Buy a car on sale and then get arrested for not paying the full price afterwards? “The customer should have known the deal was too good.”
Swiping the card twice puts the machine into maintenance mode where she manually adjusted the price to zero. That’s pretty straightforward theft.
If you’re putting maintenance mode behind 2 normal swipes I don’t understand how that isn’t your fault
TIL: If the lock is easy enough to pick, you can legally break in and take whatever you want. /s
Not saying it isn’t theft. Just pointing out the fact that putting maintenance mode behind 2 swipes (as if no one’s ever had to re-swipe a card before) is as stupid as using an easy to pick lock on whatever you want to protect. I dont slam lock my door everyday, I add an extra factor of protection by using more than just slam lock.
So was selling toxic assets to pension funds
We get it and all agree that rich people should also be held accountable for their crimes. You don’t need to convince anyone here.
The difference between you and those of us not defending her is that only one of us is defending exploiting a fault in the system for personal benefit.
Ia your entire argument here that because the ultra-rich get away with financial crimes that everyone should be allowed to commit them?
My entire argument is that we have misplaced priorities. In my lifetime the airlines got two bailouts, the auto industry got two bailouts, the banks got 3 bailouts, and a whole fuckton of fake GOP connected companies got Covid money.
We are talking about a trillion fucking dollars if you add it all up and adjust for inflation. A trillion fucking dollars stolen from us. That is the priority, not someone who got a discount on gasoline by using a rewards card.
When I see everyone C level at Bane Capital, Haliburton, American Airlines, Goldman, GM, and those that worked at Sterns behind bars then I will worry about this lady. The law should bind those at the top more than those at the bottom.
You can also arrest Thomas and Alito while you are at it for taking bribes.
If she went to a gas station one time and swiped her card and it gave her free gas, it’s reasonable to think that she might have assumed the discount gave her free gas on the first use. This wouldn’t be an issue.
When she’s using it to get over $20,000 in gas, selling gas to others by using her double swipe technique, that falls well outside the reasonable bounds of an honest mistake.
So no, there is no slippery slope where you’re going to be locked up for a store misapplying a coupon or whatever.
Where the fuck can you get gas without paying first
Some places allow filling up and then paying inside the petrol station.
i’ve never paid for gas before pumping only after, this is southern ontario
Used to be the norm in the US until about 15 years ago . Before cards took over and many people were paying cash, it allowed customers to fill their tank. It’s still common in Europe.
That may have worked in the past, but not recently, at least not around here. Pump won’t function until the attendant activates it. (Per the signs, “cash customers pay before dispensing gas.”)
how do these fuckin bootlickers find their way to lemmy?