Major Gas Station Rip-off

It's a sign of the times for Kevin Dalton. "Unfortunately I can't pay a security guard to stay here and watch," says Dalton. The owner of this Palm Beach Gardens Shell gas station never imagined he would have to beef up security around his gas pumps.

The economy has gotten so bad, savvy thieves-- when no one was looking--- took a screwdriver to a pump sometime Thursday night. "They were able to jam one of the gears that while the gas is pumping, the actual money part of it was only slightly moving. So instead of getting 20 gallons for 49 dollars, it was 20 gallons for 49 cents." That meant people were helping themselves to gallons of gas for just a fraction of what it *should* cost.

A home video shows aired during the 11 o'clock hour starts with a pick-up driver's tank nearly empty.Even though the display on the pump is not moving, he IS filling it up. A full tank minutes later... for only 8 cents!

Gas station clerks didn't realize what was going on, until one honest person came back and told them they were being... "hosed"."Gas prices are high but still we got to pay for it. It's not right for us to run off with people's gas, you know what I mean? Someone has got to pay for it, you know what I mean?" said one customer.

With the economy in the tank, people we talked to were not surprised about this tank rip-off. " Because you have a lot of people out there who refuse to work. Only thing they think to do is to go out there and steal something that belongs to someone." said one man.