Garages use 'stingers' to combat petrol theft

Subject: Garages use 'stingers' to combat petrol theft Sat May 24, 2008 7:36 am

A sharp rise in the theft of fuel at the pumps has led some garage owners to install "stinger" devices to puncture the tyres of drivers who leave the forecourt without paying.

The increase in "drive-aways", as they are known in the industry, has been linked to the 20 per cent increase in the cost of petrol in the past year.

The new Drivestop device has a sensor which detects when a driver is pulling away without paying. The cashier triggers the system which starts with a loudspeaker announcement warning the would-be thief that his tyres will be shredded.

If the warning is ignored a set of metal spikes spring up and punctures the rear wheels, deflating them in ten seconds.

The Drivestop, which costs £10,000, also leaves a tag with a unique identification number embedded in the rubber, which enables police to link the vehicle with the theft.

Mukesh Patel, who owns a petrol station near Finsbury Park, north London, installed the system last month after losing more than £5,000 in drive-away thefts.

He said: "More people are attempting it with the high cost of fuel and we have been getting at least one a week. But since the notices about the spikes went up last month, there haven't been any drive-aways."

The system was invented by Jaginda Singh, whose family-owned petrol station was almost driven out of business by drive-aways, and has been installed on ten forecourts so far.

Only one attempt has been made to drive over the spikes, in New Eltham, south east London. The thief drove 100 yards down the road on punctured tyres before abandoning the car, which turned out to have been stolen.

The Petrol Retailers' Association said drive-aways cost the industry more than £11 million in 2006 but this was likely to have grown in the past year.

LNK
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"Taking money without permission is stealing unless you work for the IRS then it's taxation. Killing people en masse is homicidal mania unless you work for the Army then it's National Defense. Spying on your neighbors is invasion of privacy unless you work for the FBI then it's National Security. Running a whorehouse makes you a pimp & poisoning people makes you a murderer unless you work for the CIA then it's counter intelligence." R. Wilson. ANCAPS Forum Headquarters, Ancapolis