I worked at a gas station about 20 years ago. Even then it would be impossible for someone to give away gas in this way.
Before the pump turns on, either the customer would have to authorize the transaction with a credit card, or an employee would have to manually authorize the transaction if they were paying with inside the store. If the gas wasn’t paid for, it would be immediately obvious by the end of the day that the till (or books or whatever) was short. To clear out the transaction without paying, we’d have to push some buttons on the register to declare that the customer drove off, and essentially accuse them of stealing, get the manager to check the security cams for the license plates, etc. No one could use that pump until the previous transaction was cleared out.
Maybe some gas stations worked differently, but I doubt any big chain ones had less security than that.
Your right, there isn’t really a way to give away free gas unless they were taking money from the safe, at some point someone is finding out after a day or two
I worked at a gas station about 20 years ago. Even then it would be impossible for someone to give away gas in this way.
Before the pump turns on, either the customer would have to authorize the transaction with a credit card, or an employee would have to manually authorize the transaction if they were paying with inside the store. If the gas wasn’t paid for, it would be immediately obvious by the end of the day that the till (or books or whatever) was short. To clear out the transaction without paying, we’d have to push some buttons on the register to declare that the customer drove off, and essentially accuse them of stealing, get the manager to check the security cams for the license plates, etc. No one could use that pump until the previous transaction was cleared out.
Maybe some gas stations worked differently, but I doubt any big chain ones had less security than that.
Your right, there isn’t really a way to give away free gas unless they were taking money from the safe, at some point someone is finding out after a day or two