Of course serious criminals also steal fuel, since itвЂ™s a largely untraceable, highly вЂњliquidвЂќ resource, but they tend not to do the penny-ante siphoning stuff. If you are living hand to mouth, and you have budgeted $30 per week to commute to work, and suddenly realise that your $30 has already run out by Friday morning, you may face two choices: find $10 of fuel in a hurry, or lose your job. (Yes, I am recalling my student days when I once trudged for miles in the rain to get a can of fuel - leaving my watch as surety on the can, the grasping bastard! - only to find my car had been vandalised in my absence.)Д«y the same token, itвЂ™s not necessarily true that the вЂњchange in price of gas is not enough to markedly change behaviorвЂќ. If you donвЂ™t have an automobile association membership, and canвЂ™t afford to suddenly shell out for cab fare or a tow truck, suddenly finding your vehicle without fuel can be a remarkably severe inconvenience. But such a person is also going to suffer a lot more from having a tank siphoned, than merely the loss of $40, or $20 or whatever.

Someone living from hand to mouth is less likely to have off-street parking, and more likely to have a very old car without built-in fuel security. That, by the way, gives a hint about the typical nature of this crime: most fuel thieves, and most victims of fuel theft, are relatively poor. (You do see some heavier vehicles without them - mainly diesel fuelled vehicles, which are presumably less attractive to thieves.) Here in Australia, as in Europe, either locking or internally controlled doors over the fuel cap have been standard on most models for so long that now itвЂ™s getting somewhat rare to see even an old bomb without one. ItвЂ™s surprising to hear the so many American vehicles apparently require these.

Locked gas caps and closed minds, but hey whatвЂ™s on survivor this week? O_o Gotta keep up with the Joneses, you know. It doesnвЂ™t matter, they rush to the store, one eye on their neighbor to see what the other has while buying something equal or to top it. Meanwhile, theyвЂ™ll continue to howl about their gas prices while slithering out from their SUVвЂ™s with their fat rolls waving like a proud flag in the wind, as the Earth continues to try and throw us a clue with bad weather вЂњKNOCK IT OFF HUMANS, YOUвЂ™RE HURTING MEвЂќ the Earth cries. If you point out the Earth is being sucked dry of its bone marrow (oil) for our coffins on wheels, that the Earth is being sealed up like a tomb for these same coffins, they call you hippy or zealot or some other such nonsense. ItвЂ™s only when the gas prices go sky high people start looking for alternatives (most of which are not new science). If people had any intelligence whatsoever (as a collective whole) they would unite peacefully against the use of gasoline and oil.

Locking gas caps for trucks