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The Urban Myths of Gas Siphoning

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From LesleyB, Featured Contributor
Posted on June 23, 2008

Did you hear the one about the guy who...?

When my friend Shannon ran out of gas a quarter mile from her house the other day, she realized that someone had siphoned the remaining gas out of her car. From her carport. In front of her home in a low crime neighborhood.

Gas siphoning is becoming more common as the price of gas increases, which makes economic sense. However, I had heard about thefts from larger targets like gas stations, large trucks and vans. But Shannon has an old Honda Civic and her gas tank was only half full. That's about 6 gallons of gasoline, which seems like a low payoff for a lot of effort. She didn't have a locked gas cap and she found the hose that they had used or tried to use to siphon the gas in a trash can next to the car, along with a couple other gas caps.

After doing some research, it turns out that there are some creative ways to siphon gas, including sucking on a hose connected to the tank to start the flow of gas. There are also a number of urban legends surrounding gas siphoning stories gone wrong, which you can use to deter people from trying it. These read like the Darwin Awards:

• The most famous is about a man who accidentally connected his hose to the septic tank instead of the gas tank on a motor home. The owner got up in the morning and found a hose, the septic tank open, and vomit all over the ground.
• One guy used a lighter while siphoning gas at night to make sure the gas was going into the container and wound up with 2nd degree burns all over his body.
• One first timer accidentally swallowed about half a mouthful of gasoline. He did not get sick, but did burp up gas fumes for a week after. There are variations on this one, including the guy who swallowed gas, burped the next day while drinking coffee and found an oil slick in the cup.
• One wrecking yard kept getting hit by gas thieves, so the employees collected urine and filled the tank of a new arrival with it. They came in the next morning and found it drained. No word on the fate of the unlucky thieves. There are also variations on this story of victims fighting back by adding all sorts of things to a 'bait' car: sour milk, beer, various chemicals, diesel fuel.
• One kid took too big a mouthful of gas by accident and drowned. Apparently it went down the wrong way?
• While this is not exactly stealing gas, it's still a good story. While inflating his tires, a man got his shirt caught between the rim and the bead. Rather than take the shirt off, he decided to siphon some gas to burn the shirt out of the rim. Unfortunately, the tire caught fire and the garage burned down.
• Some people apparently try to drill directly into the gas tank, which is very unsafe. There are many urban legends about someone using a cordless drill to get to the gas tank of a vehicle. Not only does this damage the vehicle but leaves behind vapor that is likely to create an explosion either immediately or when the car is started. Don't do it.

Anyone else got any good urban myths about this?

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LesleyB is a featured contributor for vLane.