U.S. gas prices fuel "drive offs" by angry drivers


BOSTON (Reuters) - A growing number of American automobile owners are so infuriated by rising gasoline prices that they are refusing to pay and speeding off in their cars from gas stations after filling their tanks.

Since Hurricane Katrina disrupted supplies and sent prices soaring, a flurry of what gasoline retailers call "drive offs" have taken place in New Hampshire -- a state whose car license plates are engraved with the motto: "Live Free or Die."

"I think we're seeing an increase in it because of the increase in gas prices," said Lt. Paul Leger of the police department in the state capital Concord, echoing comments by gas retailers across the state.

"We were just experiencing a wealth of drive-offs," Peterborough Oil Company owner Joe Hart said in the Concord Monitor, a New Hampshire daily.

"It's all shapes and sizes and ages of people who, for some reason, think they're shaking their fist at the oil-producing people, but it actually hurts us quite a bit," he said.

Americans have been stunned by record gasoline prices after devastation from Hurricane Katrina.

Nicki Richard, a Shell station manager, said the number of drive-offs from her business in the New Hampshire state capital had climbed over the summer but spiraled out of control after Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast.

Gasoline prices vaulted to well over $3 a gallon in many parts of the United States after the hurricane shut down most of the region's oil production and refineries. Gasoline had sold for about $2.60 a gallon before the hurricane hit.

By September 1, Richard's store and other franchises in the area began requiring customers to pay the cashier before pumping, the Concord Monitor reported.

"Drive-offs were continually rising as the price of gas was continually rising, and they just started getting out of control," she said. "This makes it easier on the cashiers. They were writing down every single license plate."


Wow. That is as close to anarchy as I think New Hampshire residents can get. For a conservative state, they are beginning to get rammy.