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A woman in Nebraska has been arrested after using a glitch at a gas pump to get more than $27,000 in fuel without paying for it.
Dawn Thompson, 45, was arrested in Lincoln, Nebraska for allegedly taking an estimated 7,413 gallons of gas from a Pump & Pantry station over a six-month period without paying a dime.
According to police, she used the gas pump over 500 times to score $27,860.27 worth of free fuel.
KOLN News reports that the gas station was alerted to the free gas issue by a loss prevention manager.
Thompson was charged with one count of theft by unlawful taking of more than $5,000.
Here’s how she did it…
1. The fuel pumps received a software update in November of 2022 which managed orders and reward cards.
2. After the update, anyone who swiped a rewards card twice put the pump into demo mode.
3. Once put in demo mode, anyone could pump gas for free.
Here’s how she got caught…
1. The loss prevention manager discovered there was one rewards card that was repeatedly being used to get free gas, sometimes multiple times in one day.
2. Video surveillance allegedly showed Thompson exploiting the glitch on multiple occasions.
3. That rewards card was also reportedly used by another woman who said Thompson let her use the card to get “discounted fuel.” She also allegedly paid Thompson for using the card.
4. Thompson later sold the card to someone else in June 2023, according to police. The glitch also happened to get fixed on June 1, 2023.
Thompson claimed that she received the rewards card from a man in lieu of cash to pay off a car debt to her. He died before the investigation was concluded and therefore was unable to be contacted.
Thompson was arrested on March 6th with bond set at 10% of $7,500 despite the fact that there was an obvious design flaw in the gas pump’s system that literally anyone with a rewards card could have exploited. Her next court hearing is scheduled for April 11.