The first 24 hours after suspected pump tampering
What to do — and specifically what not to touch — when you think a dispenser at your site has been tampered with. Preserving the scene changes what investigators and your insurer can do.
Fuel theft news
What is happening to other operators
Cases reported by named news outlets and law enforcement, written up for the people who run the sites. We report what happened and what it cost — never how it was done. Our editorial standards.
11 posts 215,250 gallons documented RSS
Incidents & roundups
One device, 15 stations, 10,000 gallons: the Bay Area diesel override case
A single crew working from Napa to Monterey used an electronic device to override software at gas pumps, taking more than 10,000 gallons of diesel from at least 15 stations.
10,000 gal
· San Mateo County, California · Source: CBS News Bay Area
2,250 gallons from two pumps: the Parker County case that put Texas operators on notice
An attendant in Parker County, Texas watched several men working on two fuel pumps. The station lost 2,250 gallons of diesel and more than $6,000 — and no customer card data was touched.
2,250 gal $6,000
· Parker County, Texas · Source: CBS News Texas
The alarm went off twice: a Palm Beach County station catches tampering in progress
A manager's in-store pump alarm sounded for pump 21, then pump 22. Two men were arrested. The detection worked — and it had nothing to do with the fuel numbers.
$1,000
· South Bay, Florida · Source: CBS12 News
Fuel Theft Watch: September 2025
Two major Florida fuel theft cases were announced within three weeks of each other — 185,000 gallons from in-ground tanks, and a pulser tampering ring caught on stakeout.
Deputies watched them do it: pulser tampering arrests at a Punta Gorda RaceTrac
Three men were arrested in September 2025 after Florida deputies recorded semi drivers manipulating pumps at a Punta Gorda station. The dispensers had been rigged so the meter under-counted.
· Punta Gorda, Florida · Source: WGCU (PBS & NPR for Southwest Florida)
Operation Van Diesel: 185,000 gallons, 70 locations, 13 Florida counties
Florida's largest recent fuel theft takedown used vans with hidden 500-gallon tanks to pull fuel from in-ground storage — not dispenser tampering. The distinction changes how you defend a site.
185,000 gal $650,000
· Tampa, Florida · Source: FOX 13 Tampa Bay
18,000 gallons, $63,000, one location: the Covington unattended-pump theft
A Tennessee co-op lost 18,000 gallons of diesel worth $63,000 from its 24/7 unattended fuel pumps. Three people were eventually charged.
18,000 gal $63,000
· Covington, Tennessee · Source: Action News 5
Operator guides
How to prevent fuel theft at a gas station
A practical hardening checklist for retail fuel sites, organized by the three surfaces thieves actually attack: underground tanks, dispenser internals, and card readers.
Fuel shrinkage: which variance is normal and which one is theft
Every site runs some inventory variance. Here is how to tell ordinary shrinkage from a loss pattern that means someone is taking fuel — before it becomes a six-figure number.
Card skimming and pump tampering are not the same crime
Both start with someone opening your dispenser. One steals your customers' card data, the other steals your fuel. They have different victims, different warning signs, and different fixes.
By state
State archives appear once we have three or more documented cases. A page with one story on it is not an archive.
Running Encore 700 dispensers?
Every case here turns on the dispenser being made to under-report what it delivered. That is what we build for.