Gasoline prices lead to petty theft

Gas prices are going up all over the US, and Hon­olulu is no excep­tion. Prices in Hon­olulu are over US$4 a gal­lon, while prices on the neigh­bor islands passed that mark in April 2008, accord­ing to this Hon­olulu Star-billetin arti­cle.

Some Hawaii-based researchers believe that prices will con­tinue to go up, as the era of “peak oil” ends. See this arti­cle from the Hon­olulu Star-Bulletin for more information.

Since the state of Hawaii gets 90% of its cargo from boats, higher oil prices will lead to higher prices for almost every good and ser­vice, includ­ing gaso­line. I have seen and read about more peo­ple who are con­sol­i­dat­ing trips, car­pool­ing, tak­ing The Bus, or walk­ing dur­ing the day.

Suck it up

Petty thieves have shifted their atten­tion from cop­per to gaso­line. ear­lier in 2008, the Hawaii Leg­is­la­ture increased the penal­ties for cop­per theft, and required scrap metal deal­ers to keep bet­ter records of trans­ac­tions. So the crim­i­nal ele­ment has armed itself with box­cut­ters and siphons. With some vehi­cles, it’s eas­ier to cut the plas­tic fuel line to drain the tank. Cars and trucks with large fuel tanks are a tempt­ing tar­get, espe­cially when they are parked on quiet streets or unse­cured com­pany lots.

This Hon­olulu Adver­tiser arti­cle has some more details, includ­ing an indi­ca­tion of how well-organized some fuel thieves are:

“In Waipi’o Gen­try we’ve been hit sev­eral times by a white pickup truck that has a big tank in the back of the rig,” [U-Haul dis­trict man­ager Don] Rickard said. “The same guy just pulls up, sticks in the hose, turns on his pump, siphons the gas and away he goes. We’ve turned in video of him doing it three or four times a month, but he keeps using stolen license plates. It’s extremely frustrating.”

The usual com­mon sense mea­sures are listed in the Adver­tiser arti­cle: video sur­veil­lance, vehi­cle alarms, and park­ing in well-lit, secure areas.

There’s one more good sug­ges­tion: get a steel fuel line made and installed under the vehi­cle. Any­one who is dumb enough to cut through a full steel fuel line with a metal blade will trig­ger an explosion.

Related posts on billso.com

• 4 Jan­u­ary 2008: Cop­per thieves kill Sugar Bowl cablecast

Tagged as: crime, Hawaii, Honolulu