I’ll admit, I perversely admire what this Nebraska woman did. She’s likely going to be in some trouble, as the 45-year-old was arrested on March 6 on felony theft charges that amount to about $28,000 from a Lincoln, Nebraska gas station named Pump & Pantry, owned by Bosselman Enterprises. How did this woman soak the gas station out of over 7,400 gallons of gasoline? She found a glitch in the gas pump software that was activated by swiping her gas station loyalty card twice.
That’s it! She appears to have done the double-swipe accidentally at first, which placed the pump into a “demo mode” that allowed for gas pumping with no cost. Who among us wouldn’t have enjoyed a nice, free tank of fresh, delicous gasoline if we were in her shoes? I bet it would be really easy to convince yourself this had to be some sort of loyalty reward, right? I can easily see myself doing just that.
Now, while I think a tank or two poses no real ethical harm, I guess the fact that she kept it up from November 2022 to the next June, where she amassed those 7,400 gallons of gas could be considered, um, problematic. Also, that’s an absolute metric assload of gasoline!
Let’s do some math here; if she had a vehicle with a large tank, let’s say 20 gallons, and she filled it up every week, that would be, um, carry the two, 1,040 gallons per year. So, in the space of eight months she bought about seven years worth of gas? Can that be right? Was she just filling up every single car, motorcycle, boat, ATV, lawnmower, chainsaw, leaf blower, camp stove, molotov cocktail, and jar that she had?
She did appear to let another person use the card, allegedly for a fee, so perhaps between the two of them that 7,400 gallon number makes more sense. Somehow.
Actually, it looks like the card was used 510 times, so that only comes to 14.5 gallons per use! She had to be at that station like every day! No wonder the loss prevention person caught on.
She eventually sold the card in June of 2023 – when the bug was discovered and fixed – to a man to pay off her car debt. That man is now dead, so he won’t likely have any good information to add to the investigation.
The glitch has been fixed, but I have to wonder if anyone else figured this out; the use case of a double-swipe unlocking the demo mode doesn’t seem all that unusual, and, really, at least some of the blame I think has to be shouldered by the gas pump software developers, because that’s a pretty huge security hole.
I’m not saying what this person did was right, and the amount this person exploited the fluke was definitely unethical, and, come on, a little stupid. You have to play it cool with little glitches like this! If she just used it occasionally, she probably could be enjoying subsidized gas right now!
“Don’t be greedy,” I think, may be one of the lessons here. And test your damn software before deploying it.
Reminds me of a poweraid vending machine we had in high school, had a coin glitch for some reason and would count the coin of same denomination but also return it.
I, just wanting a blue drink, borrowed 4 quarters with intent to repay the next day discovered that when you put a quarter in it kicked it out and I thought it was broke, only to realize when I went to put the quarterback in after it kicked it out it counted it and so I did this three more times and it was a dollar while still keeping those quarters. So me being slightly unethical I got three of them for the price of free. And then returned the four quarters back to the guy I borrowed it from the same day saying I didn’t need them. So I did this a couple more times only getting one or two as to not be greedy and keep the gravy train going I one day realize I only had dimes. And yet lo and behold is still worked, but then I made my mistake and told someone else about sex glitch and they went and tried it but instead of using the same coin they use different coins of different denominations and of course it didn’t work it functioned as it was supposed to and so they complained about it to one of the administrators and they went shut the machine down and figured out what was up with it and fix it. So moral of the story being don’t look a gift horse in the mouth and tell the village idiot about a pot of gold
Having spent enough time there, in the mid to late 80s I learned how to operate the condom machine at Chappie Bar at 425 E. Wells. in Milwaukee without money. I gave the hundreds of condos I received like this all away (lord knows I didn’t need many)… so I was kind of like reverse Johnny Appleseed.
I learned the key combination for free espresso in the vending machine next to the college radio studios in a pretty stupid way, and for three years pretty much no one at radio station paid for coffee. The combination was intentional, as per the agreement between the vendor and the student’s association, directors had access to free coffee using that code (the SA director’s offices were in the same floor as the radio station and the newspaper).
One night I was working late and went to get a coffee. There were two SA directors there, super drunk and bragging about their free coffee, not bothering to hide how they were doing it. In the end it was removed because it became a bit of an open secret and of course the vendors noticed that like 90%+ of times people used the code instead of paying. Code was espresso button, less sugar button, more sugar button, espresso button/decaf button (you could also get decaf for free).
I feel zero guilt, the Directors were literally the only people making money off SA activities – and lots of it – despite mostly just getting drunk and managing way too much money for their own good, and the vending machine guy was an asshole who charged airport-like prices and wouldn’t even bother restocking properly, so you could very well discover your sorry ass chicken mayo sandwich had expired days ago – sandwiches were always placed sticker facing in. If anything I’m sorry I didn’t do it more, and I did it plenty.
Pigs get fed, hogs get slaughtered. Dont be a hog.
Yeah I don’t think I could hurt a small business like that and sleep at night.
Well, Bosselman Ent. is a big company, in 24 states, near as I can figure annual revenue north of $100 million.
If you used a $1 bill in my high school’s vending machine, you would get TWO cans of RC Cola instead of one!
I’ll just sit here and wait for the Feds to show up.
Why is there a furry on that sign in the headline? You know what, it doesn’t matter. Let’s just go with it.
That’s what you pump in the pantry
He’ll get you going
For the readers who don’t need to take pain relievers to fall asleep: companies used to have mascots, often fun animals that usually wore some sort of branding, like a t-shirt or hat, to raise brand awareness and make kids want to stop at that place on a road trip.
Then the internet and rule 34 came along.
I went to fill up my wife’s car Monday, and the price under the regular button showed 0.044 per gallon. I looked from side to side wondering if anyone was watching, and went for it. I still paid 3.249 on the gas… there was no glitch. But I would have had no way to replicate this on my next trip, so it would have only been one time. I probably would have taken the gas and said nothing. If I knew a glitch like this woman had? I don’t know what I would have done, but I would at least have gotten a new loyalty card and registered it to Elwood Blues, 1060 W Addison St, Chicago, IL 60613.
I also hate Illinois Nazis
Should’ve taken photos to dispute it. I think this falls under “when there is a disagreement between the register and the pump, the pump shall be taken as valid” rules.
The thing is, C-stores typically make only pennies per gallon on their gas: it’s an enticement to bring people in to buy things they make money on. I ran one for years, and we made 5-6 cents on regular—which we split with the site owner as they owned & maintained the tanks and insurance upon them: a significant investment. This theft likely hurt this site quite a bit.
Back in the days of landline phones, you could usually dial zero to get from a local network and out to dialing regular numbers all over the country. At my school that feature was of course turned off and wasn’t possible, you had to use the pay phones for that..
But the dial double zero to make international calls, which was common on all regular phones here, wasn’t! So you could make free international calls from the local network school phones, just not regular national ones.. Nice feature to have discovered when my girlfriend was a month abroad at one time 😎
Gotta love a good loophole!
Just like in Superman III
Two chicks at the same time, man. That’s what I’d do.
I always get a decimal wrong or some mundane detail like that.
I had a similar thing happen back during the 1973 Oil Crisis. That was back when all service stations worked on the pay-inside-first system. After waiting in line forever it was finally my turn and I paid my two bucks (significant money for a broke ass college student). The pump clunked to a stop at $2 and I gave the nozzle my usual squeeze and shake to get the last drops. And the pump kept dispensing. But the numbers on the pump stayed the same. I was getting free gas! Even though I felt guilty I filled my tank.
Any more than three squeeze and shakes and you’re just playing with it.
During the 73 Oil Crisis, just about anyone would play with it in public to actually get a reasonable amount of the glistening juice!
If she did it for a full 8 months that is ~240 days so 510 purchases is an average of more than twice per day.
“So, in the space of eight months she bought about seven years worth of gas?”
No – She stole seven years worth of gas in eight months.
That’s where the problem lies.
But you’re right: Greed will get you every time.
This has “The Gang Solves the Gas Crisis” written all over it.
If I discovered that, my next stop (after filling up the Brougham) would at home to print out a sticker for the card titled “Fuel Shark”.
You can get free gas at most gas stations.
“Free gas with any hot food purchase.”
What kind of 1990s gas station still uses physical loyalty cards? They kind of deserve to be taken advantage of.
Did you fail to notice the part about this happening in Nebraska?
TBH this is the first time in literal months that I’ve even thought about Nebraska.
This further proves that, you are indeed, not a robot.
Having had the misfortune of driving through Nebraska on I80 several times, you’re very much better off not thinking about Nebraska.
I’ve driven thru Nebraska on I80 numerous times too –
I get bored just thinking about it.
Since the guy gone mad with the skid steer a few months back? Also in Lincoln….
The governor of Nebraska often has to be reminded that his state exists.
The reverse is also true.
Hahahahahahaha
Same, and I live there.
I escaped Nebraska right after high school, many years ago, not that the neighboring state that I live in is much better.
Umm….. Maverik? I have a very physical plastic rectangle for my Maverik loyalty program.
I still use physical loyalty cards obtained using a fake name and phone number. There’s only so much surveillance and profiling I’m willing to live with. Now of course video cameras can recognize you and your license plate, so I’m tilting at windmills a bit.
She must’ve had one of those interdimensional gas tanks sold through J.C. Whitney.
storing my gas (or battery pack) in a pocket universe would certainly allow me to buy in bulk and reduce weight at the same time!
Yes, don’t be greedy.
And sanitize your database inputs
https://xkcd.com/327/
didn’t need to open the link to know it was my old friend Bobby Tables
Yeah, who doesn’t love little Bobby Tables
“Fixed” as in do some configuration vs leaving everything as default out of the box?
I’m curious if any of the software developers happen to have one of those loyalty cards.
Pretty sure everyone who works on those devices know the tricks from developers to sales (hence demo mode).
I am interested in what model the pump is, even though mom and pop gas stations with low res security is pretty rare these days at my neck of the woods.
Wouldn’t do them much good. China and India are a long way from Nebraska.
My guess is this was for testing and nobody disabled it before shipping out the software