A Nebraska woman allegedly found a lucrative quirk at a gas station pump — double-swipe the rewards card and get free gas!

Unfortunately for her, you can’t do that, prosecutors said. The 45-year-old woman was arrested March 6 and faces felony theft charges accusing her of a crime that cost the gas station nearly $28,000.

Prosecutors say the woman exploited the system over a period of several months. Police learned of the problem in October when the loss-prevention manager at Bosselman Enterprises reported that the company’s Pump & Pantry in Lincoln had been scammed.

  • M0oP0o@mander.xyz
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    8 months ago

    Sorry but how is this not on the system, let alone a crime?

    This slope is slick, if she is guilty of theft due to a system error then whats to stop them from saying the price you bought something at was an “error” later?

    And lets face it, swiping a card 2 times breaking your system tells me that you should get better QA not charge someone.

      • M0oP0o@mander.xyz
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        8 months ago

        If I make a self serve machine and tell everyone to use it who’s responsibility is it to ensure it’s functionality? The customer?

        This would be I think more like if a staff member was not charging for gas to turn all the blame on the customers who benefited.

        • Chaotic Entropy@feddit.uk
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          8 months ago

          There’s no change to the expectation in this transaction… “I swiped my card twice, it broke the process that is supposed to happen, the proprietor does not know that this is happening, I’m not going to tell them, I guess I can just exploit this forever with no ramifications”. What’s that? The security barrier in this shop is broken? I guess everything is free now.

          This happens once, that’s an oopsie freebie, you do this every time for months then that is a pattern of criminal behave. You don’t just get to take stuff because the process has broken down, and any company has the explicit right to seek recompense from you.

          • M0oP0o@mander.xyz
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            8 months ago

            a pattern of criminal behave.

            What kinda Kirkland brand minority report is this?

            I am not saying she was not taking advantage of this flaw, but the flaw is so bad that I can not in good judgment pin her with theft. Fraud? Maybe. You also have to be careful with legal responsiblity here as it could set a dangerous legal expectation.

  • ahal@lemmy.ca
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    8 months ago

    To all the people defending her, how is this different than just pumping and driving away? You could always pump first and pay inside later, and it works on the honour system. In this case she clearly intentionally circumvented paying.

    • Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      It’s different in that they gave her a card that says “here is a discount”.

      If you go into a store, pay with a stack of coupons from that store and walk out with a free chicken, can the store come back and charge you with a felony because they made a mistake and claim they didn’t really mean to print the coupon?

      How far can this go? Buy a car on sale and then get arrested for not paying the full price afterwards? “The customer should have known the deal was too good.”

      • BreakDecks@lemmy.ml
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        8 months ago

        Swiping the card twice puts the machine into maintenance mode where she manually adjusted the price to zero. That’s pretty straightforward theft.

        • ieatpwns@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          If you’re putting maintenance mode behind 2 normal swipes I don’t understand how that isn’t your fault

          • BreakDecks@lemmy.ml
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            8 months ago

            TIL: If the lock is easy enough to pick, you can legally break in and take whatever you want. /s

  • solarvector@lemmy.zip
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    8 months ago

    If she was rich, the response would be, “congratulations!”, and if she was an LLC it would be a fine of… 5 percent?