DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) – Gas has become so expensive, it’s starting to entice more thieves to steal it out of your car.
That’s what some people living in an area north of Dallas called Bent Tree West are telling us.
If you don’t have a locking air cap, it’s easy for someone with the right equipment to have access to something you could have just paid up to $100 for a pump.
Driving to work is all that Caroline Self says she’s been using her SUV for since gas prices started skyrocketing.
Self, a Dallas resident, said: “I put $10 in, didn’t even get half a quarter of my car and sometimes that’s all I can afford.
So she gasped when she was getting ready to go to work recently and discovered that someone had emptied her gas tank.
“I was devastated,” Self said. “It’s hard to afford gas right now and I’ve spent my last dollar on it so it’s really heartbreaking that thieves keep doing this.”
Videos posted online of people being sucked in by cameras from vehicles suggest that while this is not a highly reported crime, it does happen.
Other residents around Self’s neighborhood have also complained about being a victim.
She thought this was her rare case of bad luck until she said a week later the thieves came back and cleaned her tank again.
“I thought it wouldn’t really happen to me that many times,” Self said.
Auto experts say most cars made since 2015 have a tank that resists smoking.
Self’s older SUV doesn’t have that protection but will have the gas cap locked as soon as she can afford one.
Even locking the gas cap is not safe.
Some thieves are using electric drills to actually make a hole underneath the gas tank and drain it.
