Thread: Gas theft
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Old 06-14-2009, 12:58 AM   #31 (permalink)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by klrv6 View Post
That sucks!!!


I agree with putting some dummy tanks out and laugh when those get stolen.

I know one shop owner who thought one of his guys was stealing some of his engine oil in bottles. He took a few new ones, cracked them open and dumped the metal shavings from the break lathe in. It didn't take long for him to figure out which employee it was. One of the mechanics came in complaining about how his engine started knocking and locked up on him. Customers cars always got new bottles from another area of the shop so he knew they wouldn't get the laced oil.
I'm pretty sure whoever stuck that oil in his car is a moron... first of all, if someone cracked open a sealed oil bottle, well, it would just be quite obvious. Secondly, the average person uses a funnel to put oil in their engine... metal shavings from a lathe would also be quite obvious as they were poured into the funnel. Lathes don't create very small shavings, usually.

The largest portion of the metal shavings, if they actually did make it into the engine unnoticed, wouldn't make it through the sump screen and oil pump, either. It would be particulate, if anything, that would actually get pumped through the engine... The biggest associated problem would be that with enough metal shavings, you might plug the sump tube, starving the engine for oil.

Regardless of all that, it's still quite obvious when an oil bottle has been opened... they're sealed like they are for a reason, and that story just illustrates it.

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