AZ lawmakers propose new penalty for electronically stealing gas

PHOENIX — Arizona lawmakers are moving to put a kibosh on one electronic method of stealing gasoline.

Legislation awaiting House action would make it a Class 3 felony to use what’s known as a “pulsar manipulation device” to trick gas pumps by making it seem just a little bit of fuel is being dispensed, when hundreds of gallons could actually be going through the nozzle. Violations would carry a presumed penalty of 3½ years in state prison.

But not everyone is convinced Senate Bill 1177 is needed, given that the theft of gasoline itself already is a crime.

Gas pumps monitor the flow of fuel electronically rather than mechanically. It is that monitoring by the internal pulsar that shows up on the pump and on screens in the store.

Thieves who can break into a pump can use the device to interfere with that signal, said Mike Williams, lobbyist for the Arizona Petroleum Marketers Association. Put simply, when that device is used, what is being pumped is far more than the pump indicates.

Chris Olson, who owns 13 SuperPumper stations in the Phoenix area, said it’s happened to him seven times and he’s lost almost 2,000 gallons of fuel. He told lawmakers an associate with Circle K told him that company lost “hundreds of thousands of gallons” nationwide through the scam, figures confirmed by Williams, who also lobbies for Circle K.

It does require at least a bit of work to install the device, as thieves need to open the pump up and install it. But Olson said that isn’t as difficult as it sounds.

“The thieves can get into the pump in about 30 seconds if they have the right equipment or the right tools to open the side of the pump,” he said.

That can happen even if the station is staffed, Olson said. “They pull up, they block themselves with the door of the vehicle. They then do what they have to do. They put this device on. And they start pumping the gas out.”

Williams said they are able to steal that much gasoline at a time by using a truck with a large tank or bladder that can store 300 to 400 gallons.

A need for the law

Current law make theft of something worth between $1,000 and $2,000 a Class 6 felony, a lesser crime than the proposed Class 3 designation. Violating the current law carries a presumptive term of a year in prison but can be handled by the courts as a misdemeanor.

The value of 400 gallons of gasoline, at $4.50 a gallon, is $1,800.

But Williams insisted there is a need for the proposed law.

“Gas is not covered by insurance,” he told the House Judiciary Committee during a hearing on the measure. “A theft of this magnitude could actually put a mom and pop (operation) out of business.”

That assumes not only that the perpetrators could be caught, but that they would be prosecuted.

Olson said he has video of thieves. “We took them to the Phoenix Police Department,” he said. “They basically told me there’s nothing they can do about it.”

Part of the problem, Olson said, is the vehicle had no license plate.

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“It was doing it in the middle of the night,” he said, and at a time when the station was closed because he doesn’t have the staff to operate 24/7.

“It took them about 50 minutes to pump about 350 gallons of diesel,” Olson said. “They did that five times, five separate incidents. One of the incidents they actually did it twice in one night so they took almost 700 gallons in that one evening.”

‘Impacts all of us’ via gas prices

That led Rep. Melody Hernandez, D-Phoenix, to question how a new law would help if the police didn’t have enough evidence to pursue the thieves under existing laws.

“I believe any law that we could pass will help on this specific issue,” Olson responded. “If these devices continue to be used, more businesses will suffer losses and it will in fact impact all of us in the price we have to pay for fuel.”

Olson told lawmakers that service station operators are doing what they can outside the realm of criminal law. For example, he said, there are devices available that can be installed over the internal pulsar device to protect against such manipulation.

“They’re quite pricey,” he said. “But we’ve done that with some of our pumps.”

And Olson said some manufacturers are making such protections part of new pumps.

“But any deterrent we could use and give stiff penalties to people that engage in this activity would be very beneficial,” he said.

‘Sounds like a case of over legislation’

The proposal is opposed by the Arizona Attorneys for Criminal Justice Reform, lawyers who represent criminal defendants.

“This is a special interest bill,” their lobbyist Charity Clark testified. “It’s for a very, very specific group. Opening this up just creates the opportunity for other special interests to come in and flood our Legislature with bills that only represent their interests.”

Clark said if the Class 6 felony provides insufficient punishment for gasoline theft, there are other applicable laws dealing with fraudulent schemes that have even stiffer penalties.

She also said creating two laws for the same conduct could lead to prosecutors “over-charging’’ defendants with both violations, allowing them to try to demand consecutive sentences.

Hernandez agreed. “This sounds like a case of over legislation,” she said.

Before giving their approval to SB 1177 last month, the House Judiciary Committee stripped language that would have made it a crime to even possess a pulsar manipulator amid questions of whether there are legal uses for such a device.

The measure, which already cleared the full Senate, now awaits a final House vote.