BC Gas thief tries to avoid rising prices

by amyjudd | July 1, 2008 at 11:09 am | 489 views | 12 comments

It's no secret that high gas prices are hurting everyone - I pretty much cry everytime I have to put gas in my car - but some people are tackling the problem in a different way.

A 38-year-old man from Victoria man is now in hospital with severe burns after he caught on fire while siphoning gas from cars.

At 4 a.m. Monday, Victoria police received two calls of vehicles on fire.

Police believe a man siphoning gas from rental trucks started a fire in a U-Haul vehicle. The man fled in a second vehicle but the fire spread to the car he was driving.

He bailed out of the vehicle and attempted to extinguish the flames. He was taken to hospital by ambulance and is facing criminal charges.

I don't want to say he deserved it but I know I would be incredibly angry if I came out of my house to go to work and someone had stolen all my gas.

See some other NowPublic coverage.

As all of you in BC know, the carbon tax kicked in today, and some of us care, and some of us don't.

My wife got me panicked this morning because she said there was a “24 cent” per litre gas tax starting tomorrow. I said “WHAT?” and promptly got online to confirm. It’s actually 2.4 cents per litre. When I usually fill up, I put $50 in. A 2.4 cent per litre gas tax means I’m paying an exta 80 cents at the pump when I fill up. OH NO!!!! TIME TO OVERTHROW THE GOVERNMENT!!!! 80 CENTS! RISE UP AND SMITE OUR OPPRESSORS!!!! THEY ARE NOT GOING TO GET $30 - $50 per year MORE FROM THIS CITIZEN!!!

According to some doomsday scenarios, spiking gas prices could turn the cul-de-sacs and two-car garages that surround North America’s cities - built over the past 60 years and designed for the convenience of people with cars - into tomorrow’s slums.

The predictions for the most part come from subscribers to the theory of “peak oil,” which holds that crude prices will shoot permanently upward as global demand outstrips dwindling supply, ruining the economy. But their predictions are getting a second look now, as suburbanites, especially in the United
States, grumble at the rising price of a fill-up.

Some warn the cost of gasoline will make the most sprawling U.S. suburbs so unattractive that housing values there will collapse, forcing many people to abandon their homes for urban areas better served by public transit and leaving only squatters, criminals and those who can’t afford to leave the outskirts. Could it happen in Canada? Many experts doubt that gas prices, while bound to rise, will shoot up so suddenly as to strangle the suburbs, which do not sprawl to the extent that many do in the U.S. But it is clear that a shift away from the traditional suburb is also under way in Canada.

Note: the video is about gas thieves around the world.

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michelle.sundvick

at 11:24 on July 1st, 2008

good stuff:

amyjudd, I like this story. It's good stuff.

I hate that there's a new tax on top of the insane prices we're already paying.. apparently I'm not alone:

Axe The BC Gas Tax - an online Facebook protest group created by political commentator Bill Tieleman - has signed up nearly 7,500 members in less than 3 weeks to fight the new provincial gas tax to be imposed on July 1.

"People are really upset that Gordon Campbell does not seem to care about the cost of this new tax at a time when they are already struggling to deal with the radical market price increase in gasoline of more than 45 cents a litre since October 2007."

JeffHuang

at 17:16 on July 1st, 2008

Hmmm.... stealing gas.... interesting.................

Im not surprised when the gas prices are THIS high

danphoto

at 18:54 on July 1st, 2008

The attack on Iraq to secure affordable oil for our future has dne nothing but increase fuel prices. Gas prices have gone up between 10 and 20 cents per month since at least early 2007.

danphoto has contributed a photo to this story.

aaron@digitalcole

at 23:00 on July 1st, 2008

I live in the San Francisco Bay area so high gas prices aren't anything new to me. I started tracking my gas usage at the end of May, not so much as to cause worry or panic. Only as a curiosity. To be honest though I'm not that worried about the "crisis". Perhaps gas should go up. It would force people to re-evaluate their lifestyles and just look at how innovative the auto industry is becoming. If push really does come to shove industry will innovate use out of this jam, we just need to be properly motivated to do it and a high gas price will supply that motivation.

aaron@digitalcole has contributed a photo to this story.

Steph and Ty's Pics

at 05:27 on July 2nd, 2008

I remember when my parents would buy a dollar worth of gas to get to work. What a long way the world has come in the last 20 years.

Steph and Ty's Pics has contributed a photo to this story.

amyjudd

at 15:40 on July 2nd, 2008

Oh my gosh, I can't even imagine what that would be like now! Sigh...

labmonkey

at 15:37 on July 2nd, 2008

These prices were actually from Summer of 2006 in San Diego, so right now gas is probably even more expensive than this! I'm in Wisconsin, and gas is over $4 for regular.

labmonkey has contributed a photo to this story.

amyjudd

at 15:39 on July 2nd, 2008

Wow, that's insane! Thank you for your photo!

michel7777

at 20:28 on July 2nd, 2008

I worked after school hours at the one once Terrible Herbst Gas Station on Fremont Street
in Las Vegas Nevada pumping Gas to earn some cash to cruise in my 1955 Chevy BelAir

2 door. 29 cents a gallon, 10c a quart of reclaimed oil

My US$1.10 an hour pay got me all the gas I needed, weekend Drive-In movies and a trunk full of Burgers from the Arctic Circle Drive In.Money left over for stuff during my school days at UNLV and the rest of it speaks for itself.

This is NOW, reality calls, - 2008 and much much more to come.
It's not that prices took 'us' on a whirlwind tour into lalaland, 'we' were coerced by credit cards our greed and crappy new cars with 120 Airbags, 2000 speakers and a GPS that makes your PS3 look like a black and white TV.

Figure.

hey, I could be wrong!