The national average gas price is holding steady at $4.32 per gallon. However, the West Coast has surpassed $7 a gallon at the pumps.
In Washington state, police warn motorists that criminals are using power tools to drill holes in tanks to steal gas. Car owners are left with huge repair bills.
Now police cross the country are seeing a different type of gas theft. Rather than steal gas from cars, some thieves are going straight to the source.
According to ABC13 News, thieves use trap doors under vehicles to steal as much as 360 gallons per day from gas stations.
The manager of one gas station in Houston noticed he was losing hundreds of gallons of gas per day. He reviewed his surveillance video and observed an SUV parked over the underground gas tank cover.
The robbers then unlock the cover and vacuum the gas into containers inside the SUV.
The manager told ABC13 the thieves returned three days in a row. On the 4th day he chased them away.
Cases of felony theft from gas stations are occurring all around the country, including Georgia, Virginia and California.
