But let's talk about Dawn Thompson from Nebraska for a minute. This woman took "creativity" to a whole new level by straight-up swiping gas through a sneaky little glitch. Reportedly, she managed to snag over $27,000 worth of gasoline over six months by exploiting outdated computer systems on certain fuel pumps.
From 1011 NOW:
Lincoln Police got a call from Bosselman Enterprise’s loss prevention manager on Oct. 20, 2023. The manager got word from the Pump and Pantry near West O Street and Sun Valley Boulevard that someone had been participating in a fuel scam.
Upon further investigation, police learned that the fuel pumps received a software update in November of 2022. The update managed orders and reward cards, and it was made at the request of customers and staff.
Unbeknownst to the company, however, the update was exploitable. It allowed anyone to swipe a rewards card twice to enter the pump into a demo mode. From there, the user could pump gas for free.
The loss prevention manager discovered one particular card had been repeatedly used to get free gas. By tracing the card’s information, police were able to identify Thompson, court records show.
Video surveillance showed Thompson pumping fuel into her vehicle on multiple occasions.
Police think that fuel was stolen between Nov. 13, 2022 and June 1, 2023. In those months, the rewards card was used 510 times. It was also used multiple times on the days it was used, police wrote.
It’s estimated that 7,413.59 gallons of gasoline were pumped during those uses. The manager estimated the average fuel cost between those months to be approximately $3.758 per gallon, bringing total losses to $27,860.27.
