Posted on 06/25/2004 8:52:21 PM PDT by Dan from Michigan
23 charged in gas-pump scam
Glitch at Meijer let dozens fill up for free by swiping driver's license
Friday, 25, 2004
BY AMALIE NASH
News Staff Reporter
Their crime was swiping a driver's license instead of a credit card at the gas pump this spring, and for 23 people, it has resulted in criminal charges.
The case is far from over, since 84 others could still be on the hook for a scam that went on for nearly five weeks at two Meijer gas stations in Pittsfield Township.
One man told police he heard it was possible to activate a pump with his driver's license while standing by a keg at a party near the University of Michigan campus, so he tried it, Pittsfield Detective Lt. Steve Heller said.
Another said he pulled up to a pump, and someone told him that he could gas up and go without paying, Heller said.
"They all said it was word of mouth, that it was just going around," Heller said. "We think it was probably an employee who started it, but there's no way of knowing."
What the 107 people who gassed up with a driver's license didn't realize was that the charge card reader recorded their driver's license numbers. A computer glitch that affected all 143 Meijer gas stations made it possible to activate a pump with the magnetic strip on a driver's license, although the theft only occurred at the two stations in Pittsfield Township. The problem has since been fixed.
No total loss figure was calculated, but it amounted to several thousand dollars, Heller said. The scam went on from late March through April, and the information from the card reader was sent to the Secretary of State to determine the thieves' identities based on their operator's codes.
A total of 49 charges have been issued against 23 people, ages 18 to 25, who turned themselves in after receiving a letter from police, Heller said. The charges range from misdemeanor retail fraud to felony counterfeit of a financial transaction device. Some people committed the scam once, and others did it as many as 15 times, police said.
The bulk of the people identified did not contact police, and those cases will also be forwarded to the Washtenaw County Prosecutor's Office, Heller said.
Those cases will be reviewed, and charges will depend on whether prosecutors could prove that the owner of the driver's license was at the station when the theft occurred, Chief Assistant Prosecutor Joseph Burke said.
"They'll be looked at and we'll check if there's any video, other information or evidence that would prove their presence at the time that the operator's code was recorded there," Burke said.
Bookmark this article under the Dumb Criminals category.
I just filled-up at this very gas station tonight. It's just across the street. Of course I used a credit card instead of my drivers license.
Just damn?
College material. They never figured out that the reason the pump activated is because the reader found acceptable data. Probably political science majors.
Michigan's Darwin Award winners. I hope they enjoy paying for all that "free" gas...
"How thick can you get?"
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