Posted on 12/10/2007 10:08:19 AM PST by John Cena
(AP) Dozens of drivers made a mad rush for cheap gas after a station employee accidentally changed the price to 33 cents a gallon.
An employee closing Trig's Minocqua Shell for the night mistakenly entered the price of a gallon of gasoline as 32.9 cents instead of $3.299 on Monday night.
He left about 10 p.m., but drivers could still use their credit cards to buy gas.
Word of the bargain spread fast in the rural northern Wisconsin community, with 42 people buying 586 gallons of gas in an hour and 45 minutes. One person had pumped 27 gallons and two purchased 18 gallons.
Local police saw the horde at the station and called store manager Andrea Reuland, who went to the station and pushed the emergency stop.
"There were cars two deep at each of my pumps," said Reuland, who knew many of the drivers and told them they were being dishonest _ the main store sign had the correct price.
"I was very upset that there's that many dishonest people," she said. "They knew there was a problem, and they took advantage of an employee's mistake and I think that's terrible."
The employee, who has been there for about six months, had changed the gas prices 25 times in the past six months.
"It was an honest mistake," Reuland said. "I could have done it."
Area residents were still talking about it Friday morning.
"Was it you guys?" a woman in the station asked Reuland. "Why do I always miss the good stuff?"
Reminds me of the Los Angeles Riots. I watched on television as folks just striped stores bare. Police just stood by helpless to do anything. IMO they should have shot a few rioters and let the undertaker sort things out.
I have no tollerance for folks who take advantage of a situation to rip others off in mass.
Couple years ago a local station left its pumps on by oversight when the station was closed and purchases were supposed to be by credit card only. When I came back Monday to pay for the ten gallons I pumped, they said that was all of it, everybody else had also come back to pay when the station was open.
What I’d like to see is the local authorities site each one for petty theft.
Isn’t Wisconson a big liberal strong-hold? I sure hope no conservatives were dumb enough to participate in this.
Pathetic.
Exactly. What a shameful display of greed...
To this day I carry guilt and regret about something similar I did in my past. Back when gasoline first cost more than one dollar, the gas pumps they had at the time were not able to charge more than 99 cents per gallon, so stations started charging exactly twice the amount on the pumps. You were basically charging per half/gallon.
They were charging 58 cents per half gallon, but the person who was working the cash register didn’t realize that it was supposed to be doubled at the cash register, and was only charging people the amount on the pump, instead of double the amount like they should have been charging.
I paid what they charged me, knowing full well what I was doing, and I didn’t say anything. And when my guilt screamed at me to go back and tell the poor schmuck working the cash register the mistake they were making, I didn’t go back.
If that person is reading this, I do regret that day, and I’m sorry. I’ve carried it with me for nearly 30 years.
If you found a department store made a mistake and left their store unlocked overnight, would you bring your truck to load up of free furniture and clothes?
Don't like it? Don't buy it. Viola!! You are no longer a victim of theft!
(Hint: it isn't called "stealing" if thousands of customers approach the seller and ask to purchase the product at the seller's clearly-posted price. That's called "commerce" by rational people. FYI.)
That's the definition of "character".
Obviously (at least in some areas) people totally lack it.
And most of them can actually vote.
No. I was kind of being a wise-ass about the 55-gallon drums, I wouldn’t really do it.
They weren’t being dishonest. If the pump said 33 it was 33. It’s the vendors issue, not the buyers.
Let me guess.
That "story" didn't make the national news.
Did it.
I wonder if this kid got his boss in trouble with the state.
you can’t have gas wars in Wisc.
He could be cited for charging less than the going rate.
I hope common sense prevails here...
and I hope the people come back and pay what they’re suppose to.
“Not a bargin, theft.
4 posted on 12/10/2007 10:14:29 AM PST by American in Israel (A wise man’s heart directs him to the right, but the foolish mans heart directs him toward the left.)”
No pal, theft would have been paying nothing, not what was posted. Actually, the moral to this story is “You snooze, you lose”. Perhaps the owner will take all this free publicity and actually sell gas on occasion for lower prices than competitors. And “American in Israel” (might be time to come back home) don’t lecture me about how little profit margin there is in retail gas sales. This was a mistake: with mistakes, “Stuff Happens”.
In 1967 I remember gas selling between 17-24 cents a gallon, plus you had a choice between SH or Blue Chip(?) stamps, and if you needed oil it was in these weird coke bottle containers with a long spout. And you never had to get out of the car!
maybe they were all drunk like “Peg the Keg”.
That's nothing. My wife and I are usually good for 60-80 gallons between us. If it happens in these parts, I'll be there! (Wake up honey, we're going out to buy gas at 3:00 am!)
It shows up in lots of small ways.
At Starbucks there is a high turnover of employees and quite often the new ones undercharge for certain drinks.
Nine time out of ten when I point out the undercharge, the result is a free upgrade...
Who says honesty never pays?
So enlighten us, what would you mandate as the proper and fair price?
And what makes you think you’d be correct?
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