The crime of filling up and driving off at the pump has greatly increased across the nation, but for Le Mars, this is something that is still on the horizon. [Click to enlarge]

Thankfully this trend in crime has not gripped Le Mars for the most part. But "drive-aways" from the pump do still happen.

"I'd say that our number of drive-aways are about the same," said Beth Dreckman, business manager at the Le Mars Truck Stop. "When it does happen, we check our camera system, see if anyone recognizes the car, recognizes the person. If we can get a license plate number, we call the police."

Being in a smaller city such as Le Mars there isn't too much crime like this, but places as close as Sioux City are starting to experience it more, Dreckman said.

Almost all of the drive-aways in Le Mars seem to be of the accidental variety.

"Usually they thought their card worked but it didn't," Dreckman said. "Once they realize it, they're usually shocked and very happy to pay."

Tom Jones, the manager of the BP Connect Country Store station, agreed.

"We've seen two drive-aways in the last month, but none have been from the increase in gas," Jones said. "Things just happen. We had a lady from Sioux Falls who sent us a check in the mail because she forgot to pay."

(Advertisement)

Jones also checks license plates when the offense is committed and then notifies the police.

"If we don't get a plate number, we just have to eat it, what else can you do?" Jones said about the lost profit.

He emphasized that employees are very good at catching license plate numbers.

A customer at the Country Store added that, at one time or another, we all forget to pay for gas mostly due to distractions from kids. With the "pay at the pump" system, however, simply forgetting to pay has become more uncommon.

Places that do not have the pay at the pump option, like the Car Go Express Sinclair station, have not seen an increase in drive-aways either.

One local gas station, which chose to remain anonymous, broke the trend when its manager said the station has seen a definite increase in drive-aways in the last couple of months.

"Some are accidental, and they come back and pay, but the last couple months have been 50-50 for accidental to on purpose," said the manager. "We saw this trend back in December around Christmas time, too. Some people have one person come in and distract the attendant while the other person fills up and leaves. Another favorite is just laying the nozzle down and hoping we don't catch them in time."

The manager at this Le Mars gas station prefers to chase the offenders down in her own car, which the manager said she's pretty successful doing.

The fact still remains that almost all of the gas station managers in the area said the high fuel prices have not caused an increase in theft at the pump, a truth the Le Mars Police Department backs.

"We see one or two a month at most," said Officer Jim Hinds. "I think it's something that's yet to come -- we could be seeing a lot more, but one a month is almost pushing it."