LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) - A gas station in Lincoln has fixed a glitch that allowed someone to pump thousands of gallons of fuel for free.

Dawn Thompson, 45, is charged with one count of theft by unlawful taking $5,000+. Police said she used an exploit to pump free gas for more than six months.

Lincoln Police got a call from Bosselman Enterprise’s loss prevention manager on Oct. 20, 2023. The manager got word from the Pump and Pantry near West O Street and Sun Valley Boulevard that someone had been participating in a fuel scam.

Upon further investigation, police learned that the fuel pumps received a software update in November of 2022. The update managed orders and reward cards, and it was made at the request of customers and staff.

Unbeknownst to the company, however, the update was exploitable. It allowed anyone to swipe a rewards card twice to enter the pump into a demo mode. From there, the user could pump gas for free.

The loss prevention manager discovered one particular card had been repeatedly used to get free gas. By tracing the card’s information, police were able to identify Thompson, court records show.

Video surveillance showed Thompson pumping fuel into her vehicle on multiple occasions.

Police think that fuel was stolen between Nov. 13, 2022 and June 1, 2023. In those months, the rewards card was used 510 times. It was also used multiple times on the days it was used, police wrote.

https://www.1011now.com/2024/03/08/lincoln-woman-exploits-pump-glitch-get-over-27000-free-gas-police-say/

It’s estimated that 7,413.59 gallons of gasoline were pumped during those uses. The manager estimated the average fuel cost between those months to be approximately $3.758 per gallon, bringing total losses to $27,860.27.

Court records show that the rewards card also accrued minimal rewards points because it wasn’t being used in an intended manner.

Police also learned of another person using the card in 2023. The woman was contacted by officers, and she claimed that Thompson would let her use the card to get “discounted fuel.”

The arrangement was that the woman would pay Thompson for using the card, according to the arrest affidavit. In total, police think the woman paid Thompson $500 for $700 worth of gas between 10 uses.

The woman also said that Thompson sold the card some time in June of 2023. The fuel exploit was fixed on June 1, 2023, police wrote.

Police said Thompson received the card in lieu of payment from a man paying off a car debt. The man could not be contacted because he was deceased by January of 2024.

Thompson was arrested on March 6 after a months-long investigation. She was arraigned on Thursday, and she was not listed in the Lancaster County jail’s inmate roster as of Friday.

Her bond was set at 10% of $7,500. Thompson’s next court hearing is scheduled for April 11.

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I reckon charges will be dropped.

Not her fault they didn't fix the exploit sooner.

And she knew to swipe the card twice how?

The Nebraska woman is extremely Wiley and bears considerable watching.

It's most definitely her fault that she was literally selling somebody else's gas. The charges will likely stick.

She didn't do this once, and didn't just do it on personal consumption.

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With the dino fuel.
Still a thief though.

A+ for being resourceful.

Dumb asses at the station should have figured it out when they Z’d out the register at the end of the day.

Fuel sales v gallons pumped.

Normally I hate thieves

But in this instance there was a glitch in the matrix which was company’s fault.  

She merely took advantage of their fuck up

Personally I would let her walk.

Holy sh*t.

LoL. Is my sarcasm meter broken?
She knowingly stole gas and then "sold" temporary access and eventually "sold" it off for a seemingly decent amount of money.


That's a good question.
First thought was she was told by someone that knows/works on those systems.
Though it could be something as simple as, she accidentally swiped the card twice one time or thought it didn't accept her card, so she swiped it again then noticed that it didn't charge her for the gas she pumped.

In before ... someone tries to excuse/rationalize/justify this?

This is what I want to know. Who just randomly swipes a rewards card twice?

I am ok with that. Many stations have pumps that run the counter without dispensing or other things like pumping slower than the rate it is billing you, etc. I busted a few in Vegas and Arizona. The AZ DEQ folks were not happy about the stations playing these games. Vegas didnt give two shits.

Too late.

How did she think she wouldn’t get caught?

Maybe. Depends on the system. Is the fuel pumped in demo mode entered somewhere into the system for them to see it?

Also depends on the business and storage setup. To me, it sounded like a smaller/older station.
Lots of reasons why they may not have noticed or if they did, they thought it was caused by a different issue.

Was that wrong?
Was she not supposed to do that?

We all learned a valuable lesson now

it was a rewards card. she was just getting her rewards.

Willing to wager?

Pics of pumpers boobies? Need to determine guilt.

FIFY, probably.

Its kinda like the ATM machine glitch where I request $50 and the machine spits out $500 .  I would put my card back in and try it again until I reached my daily limit or the machine stopped glitching .

Arfcom, home of the schizoid, thieving dentheads.

There's a gas station here that has a Rewards program where you earn $ off gas, and your account is linked to your phone number. That's also how you claim your Rewards at the pump. You can often get anywhere from $0.20 to $2.00/gal off by simply entering the phone number of a friend or family member who you think might participate in the program.  In minecraft.

Was she a trucker? That breaks down to about 260 gallons (!) per week over a period of just over 6 months, if my math is right.

Article says a friend used the card too, but only for about $700 worth.

(I drive a beat-to-shit ecconobox that only uses about 15 gallons per week.)

Too bad they didn't catch the scumbag thief sooner.  Hopefully they can recover their money.

Devil's advocate-

Their system allowed it, why is it her problem?

It sounds to me like she just stumbled on it and didn't fully understand what was happening.

Her master plan was to rent out her gas card and tell people to double swipe it.  The exploit worked with all gas cards, not just hers.  If she had understood it, she would have gone in and gotten more cards that were not tracable back to her, and been able to rent out multiple gas cards to multiple people at a time.  

I think she just wasn't paying attention one time and swiped it twice and oopsy got free gas.  Then she assumed she had some magic gas card and went and rented it out.

That is exactly what I expect to be the case.  Somehow swiped it twice and then pandora's box opened.

7400 Gallons in 8 months?

Where in the hell was she putting all that gasoline?  

That works out to like 30 gallons pumped every day!  Must have been going into a lot of different vehicles.  

Crazy shit!

It was a rewards card, so...

Doubt it.

This must be her.

That was my first question.  Did someone on the inside tip her off?  Maybe a disgruntled IT worker?

If she's smart enough to figure out that hack. Hopefully she was smart enough to STFU and lawyer up when she got found out.

nope

Glad they busted her.

Greed is always the thief's downfall. AKA, pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered.

As usual, the "hack" was an inside job.

There's never an excuse for shitty programming.
Test your code, people!

Dumb girl with dumb gas station workers and managers.

Me. Tomorrow.




chris pratt turns to the camera gif

Off to go look for phone numbers of rich people

but, before I go, if you ever had someone you wanted to get in trouble, never put their number in at the grocery store, then buy cigarettes, white claw and rubbers when you know they are at the gym for a few hours and that their wife monitors loyalty card purchases. Never.

If they programmed their "rewards" card to give free gas it would seem to be a case of stupidity on their part rather than theft.

That wasn’t a glitch.

Fraudulent gas pump exploitation schemes are rampant right now. Happens all the time.  What’s amazing is that the big gas station companies don’t give a fuck, it’s really hard to get them to do any work to stop the thefts.

If that station is one that has pumps that play really loud commercials on the pump with no way to silence it; I would vote not guilty.

If it goes slow or looks like it's not doing anything the first time, everybody.

What's the difference in her pumping the fuel with the "glitch", and her just pumping it and driving off without paying for it?

That's right....nothing.

She stole it.

Bet money it wasn't any card. Bet this was a card a dispenser technician set up to work on pumps.