Gas gets pricey, and people do the strangest things.
Two Baltimore-area gasoline stations reporting gas thefts in the past week had stories to tell ? and not just of drivers pumping and slipping away without paying.
Customers fueling up last week at a Baltimore Amoco station might have taken off without paying after someone tampered with the payment systems at two pumps, said Omar Abukanan, who?s worked at the Amoco for about three years.
Management at the station, in the 2000 block of Haines Street, didn?t notice the payment systems had been tampered with until they later took inventory, Abukanan said. Hundreds of gallons of gas were gone by then from pumps 5 and 6, he said, costing the station at least $2,000. It?s unclear if customers were aware of the problem.
It?s not that thefts at the Amoco are unheard of, he said, just that they?re usually limited to a candy bar or two.
And a woman in a stolen Suzuki Vitara took off from a Baltimore County Hess gas station Wednesday without paying for $49.50 worth of gas, leading police on a chase that ended on the MTA light rail tracks, police said.
Ann Elizabeth Sabatino, of Reisterstown, was arrested and charged with theft, eluding police and traffic violations after police said she drove off without paying for gas at Ken?s Hess Station in Cockeysville, according to police.
An officer in an unmarked car driving on York Road spotted the Suzuki and started following it after the gas theft was reported, according to charging documents. Sabatino, who was allegedly driving the Suzuki, sped off once she realized the officer was following her, the documents say.
Sabatino allegedly turned onto an unpaved access road, running parallel to the Light Rail tracks, to get away from the officer, the documents say.
An electrical box at one point blocked the access road. So Sabatino allegedly gunned the engine and turned onto the Light Rail tracks, becoming airborne, the documents say.
The Suzuki got stuck on the tracks, and as the officer came toward the vehicle, Sabatino allegedly threw it in reverse and tried to back out, the documents say.
Other police officers had gotten there by then, and Sabatino and a passenger in the car were arrested, the documents say.
