Wis. drivers line up for gas at 33 cents

[GaryC 7]

MINOCQUA, Wis. -

Dozens of drivers made a mad rush for cheap gas after a station employee accidentally changed the price to 33 cents a gallon.

An employee closing Trig's Minocqua Shell for the night mistakenly entered the price of a gallon of gasoline as 32.9 cents instead of $3.299 on Monday night.

He left about 10 p.m., but drivers could still use their credit cards to buy gas.

Word of the bargain spread fast in the rural northern Wisconsin community, with 42 people buying 586 gallons of gas in an hour and 45 minutes. One person had pumped 27 gallons and two purchased 18 gallons.

Local police saw the horde at the station and called store manager Andrea Reuland, who went to the station and pushed the emergency stop.

"There were cars two deep at each of my pumps," said Reuland, who knew many of the drivers and told them they were being dishonest — the main store sign had the correct price.

"I was very upset that there's that many dishonest people," she said. "They knew there was a problem, and they took advantage of an employee's mistake and I think that's terrible."

The employee, who has been there for about six months, had changed the gas prices 25 times in the past six months.

"It was an honest mistake," Reuland said. "I could have done it."

Area residents were still talking about it Friday morning.

"Was it you guys?" a woman in the station asked Reuland. "Why do I always miss the good stuff?"

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071208/ap_on_.../odd33_cent_gas

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

Nope. Not worth it. I siphon my neighbors gas instead.

[Ban Hammer 13,637]

Nope. Not worth it. I siphon my neighbors gas instead.

if that was to happen around here, it would probably be right after i filled up my gas tank somewhere else.

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

Nope. Not worth it. I siphon my neighbors gas instead.

if that was to happen around here, it would probably be right after i filled up my gas tank somewhere else.

you pay 33 cents and I pay ZERO.

[Jenn! 918]

"I was very upset that there's that many dishonest people," she said. "They knew there was a problem, and they took advantage of an employee's mistake and I think that's terrible."

Who's this guy, Mother Theresa?

What good are mistakes if you can't take advantage of them?

[yassmine2878 1]

Nope. Not worth it. I siphon my neighbors gas instead.

if that was to happen around here, it would probably be right after i filled up my gas tank somewhere else.

you pay 33 cents and I pay ZERO.

Ahhh, he's got ya there. Bow down to greater logic.

And admittedly, yeah Id be in line with all those other cars. A mistake like that wouldnt last long and I would definitely try to get in on it. Not that that its the honest and proper thing to do, but its all too tempting for me. I suppose it feels 'less wrong' to take advantage of a gasoline corporation than an individual person. But they probably made the clerk pay for the mistake in some form or fashion.

That being said, I recall every damn gas station in my hometown making horrible price spikes on 9/11. Some stations were charging upwards of 10 dollars a gallon. And people were stupid enough to fall for it! I knew of some businesses who actually let their employee go in shifts to fill up their tanks during business hours because of the sheer panic. Mind you, it didnt last long. The service stations were caught gouging and forced to drop their prices again. But I hope the people who panicked felt really damn stupid for spending that much on their gasoline for NO REASON.

Edited December 8, 2007 by yassmine2878

[Kazan' Tiger 1]

Regarding the "People were dishonest" comment. There is a difference between taking advantage of a price error made by an agent of the company and a person going up to a cash register with a self altered price tag.

Edited December 9, 2007 by Kazan' Tiger

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

"There were cars two deep at each of my pumps," said Reuland...

Two deep is supposed to be a lot? Two deep is normal in my world LOL.

And yes of course I would take advantage of it.

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

"There were cars two deep at each of my pumps," said Reuland...

Two deep is supposed to be a lot? Two deep is normal in my world LOL.

And yes of course I would take advantage of it.

FYI. The rest of the country doesn't double park. I remember people triple parking in Queens. I squeezed by and found a spot and walked. Lazy NYers.

[Jasman0717 9]

Nope. Not worth it. I siphon my neighbors gas instead.

[doodlebugg 10]

I hate to admit this but I remember when gas was 50 cents/gallon.

[Jaseball 0]

Don't know the legality of pricing errors, but if you use your credit card for the mis priced gas it wouldn't be too hard to track the people down and get the difference, sort of like banks who track down the ATM people who take advantage of mistakes where the higher bills are dispensed or the machine freaks out and keeps sending out bills.

My personal moral dilemma would be more in line with finding a container of cash lying in public worth $1,000,000+ and nobody and no obvious cameras around.

$30-60 in mis priced gas seems to be far more trouble than it is worth.

[MrsAmera 41]

Well two deep here is something big LOL. Minocqua is a dinky small town in Northern Wisconsin. I'm pretty sure if they wanted to they could ask around to find out who was filling up and or the people who did would be bragging about it. I think that's why the manager was so shocked because the whole town knows each other and took advantage of the situation.