Lincoln woman exploits pump glitch to get over $27,000 of free gas, police say [View all]

Lincoln woman exploits pump glitch to get over $27,000 of free gas, police say

A gas station in Lincoln has fixed a glitch that allowed someone to pump thousands of gallons of fuel for free.

By 10/11 NOW
Published: Mar. 8, 2024 at 12:04 PM CST | Updated: 22 hours ago

LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) - A gas station in Lincoln has fixed a glitch that allowed someone to pump thousands of gallons of fuel for free. … Dawn Thompson, 45, is charged with one count of theft by unlawful taking $5,000+. Police said she used an exploit to pump free gas for more than six months.

Lincoln Police got a call from Bosselman Enterprise’s loss prevention manager on Oct. 20, 2023. The manager got word from the Pump and Pantry near West O Street and Sun Valley Boulevard that someone had been participating in a fuel scam.

Upon further investigation, police learned that the fuel pumps received a software update in November of 2022. The update managed orders and reward cards, and it was made at the request of customers and staff. .. Unbeknownst to the company, however, the update was exploitable. It allowed anyone to swipe a rewards card twice to enter the pump into a demo mode. From there, the user could pump gas for free.

The loss prevention manager discovered one particular card had been repeatedly used to get free gas. By tracing the card’s information, police were able to identify Thompson, court records show.

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