ALEXANDRIA, VA – With retailers increasingly requiring customers to prepay for gasoline, early reports indicate that gas theft (drive-offs) is down this year. However, this doesn’t mean that people have stopped stealing gas, and that should be of concern to retailers.

For retailers who allow customers to pump first and then pay, gas theft can still be a problem. While mandating prepay would essentially eliminate gas theft, there are potential negative consequences, including a potential loss of sales when customers feel inconvenienced or underestimate their gasoline purchases, reduced in-store sales and the tendency for customers who would otherwise have paid with cash to instead pay by credit card, triggering fees as high as 10 cents a gallon for some retailers. (Editor’s note: Click here for more on issues related to gasoline theft.)

While gas theft at the pump may be down, that doesn’t mean people have stopped stealing gas. Siphoning has increased in some areas to levels not seen since the 1970s. News reports throughout the country indicate that thieves are targeting cars parked in commuter lots and other areas where cars are parked for extended periods. And another prime target are vehicles with large fuel tanks, whether SUVs, trucks or delivery vehicles.

The increase in siphoning has led to a corresponding increase in sales of locking gas caps at automotive parts stores. The automotive aftermarket retail and service chain The Pep Boys issued a press release last week reporting that the company “is seeing a steady increase in the sale of locking gas caps, which correlates to the rise in gas prices.”

Of biggest concern to retailers may be recent reports that thieves are now reprogramming the pumps themselves and stealing thousands of gallons of gas. Last month in Baltimore, three separate stations reported that they were targets of thieves who disabled the pumps to steal gas. At one BP station, owner Riaz Ahmid told television station WBAL that he lost more than $8,000 worth of gas by bypassing the pump and charging others a cut-rate price for the fuel.

“Whoever did this disabled the pump and isolated it (from the cashier). He was probably selling a tank (of gas) for about $10 or $20 ... they were all lined up waiting for the tank,” Ahmid told WBAL.

Ahmid suspects that the theft was committed by someone who worked for a pump maintenance company and had an access key for the pump.

“(The) pump does not communicate with the cash register ... it’s disabled from the main system, and this is a free product--all they do is come, lift the nozzle and start filling up,” Ahmid told WBAL. “He’s definitely an expert, a technician who knows what he’s doing.”

A similar scam occurred earlier this month in St. Louis, where thieves targeted two stores. The manager at one Phillips 66 store, Kevin Tippit, told television station KSDK that about $6,000 to $10,000 was stolen before a customer tipped off the store.

“They (the thieves) have a key to the pump and then after they open up the pump they go in and they reprogram the pump, so they can have free gas. And then everybody behind them sees what they're doing, and they continue,” Tippit told the television station. “What it actually does is bypass our system. It goes beyond the register and is drawing directly off the pumps.”

“The first line of defense to deter this type of theft is the key,” NACS Vice President of Research Gray Taylor told NACS Daily. He said that a growing number of retailers are fitting their pumps with proprietary keys. One example is Tulsa, Oklahoma-based QuikTrip, which told attendees at the recent National Petroleum Energy Credit Association conference in San Diego that it is in the process of changing every dispenser at its stores to proprietary QuikTrip keys.

Other retailers may want to review their security systems at the pump as well, added Taylor, whether developing a proprietary key or contacting a local locksmith to look at how additional locks can help deter thieves.