Long version: Twice now this week our cashier has come into work at 6:30 and there has been an unpaid gas transaction for $50 on the till, which should be impossible because our pumps are set up to require authorization from 7:00 pm until 8:00 am. We called another gas station that has the same pumps/network/till as us and asked them if it had happened to them at all. Yep, $60 one night last week.

Today we called the guy that services our pumps and asked him is there any way to scam the pump. His answer...yes, but you have to get access to the keypad inside the pump behind the credit card scanner that the techs use for diagnosis/repair of the pumps. When there is a problem with the pumps the tech will come out and type in a code on that keypad which will take it offline to help them figure out if the problem is the pump or if it is the network/till, the function of the keypad has many other uses, this is just one of them. While the pump is offline you are able to bypass needing authorization and pump, once you put it back online it will show up as a transaction on the till.

We also learned today that most pumps come from the factory with a set of keys to get into the pump and a code to troubleshoot the pump that are universal to the specific brand of pump. When the pumps are installed the company installing them is supposed to change out the keys and change the code, 90% of the time they don't.

Talking to the tech today he has said over the last month he has changed out the locks and the code at many different stations because of the "mysterious money on the till in the morning."

Now this leads us to the question...who is stealing the 10's, 100's, or even 1000's of gallons of gas over the last month? Someone that works as a pump tech? Someone who has a bump key and found the code on the internet? Either way, as of this afternoon, our code has been changed, so if it happens again then it is either the owner of the business or our pump tech (he even made the joke today as he was leaving "Dave and I are the only ones who know your code now so I'll probably have to stop stealing gas from you guys or I'll get busted"). Who the hell knows. All we know is that with current markup from wholesale it will take 770 gallons worth of cash sales or 3333 gallons worth of credit card sales to make up for the $100 lost.

I'm not trying to say "feel sorry for my boss, feel sorry for the gas stations" gas stations are lucky to break even between gas loads and I'm just trying to point out how bad shit is starting to get.