Lincoln police arrested one woman in Nebraska after they say she stole thousands of dollars of gas due to a glitch that put the pump into “demo” mode, allowing gas to be pumped for free.
According to police, 45-year-old Dawn Thompson used a rewards card to swipe free gas from a Pump and Pantry for more than six months. KOLN-TV reported the woman used the trick more than 500 times and sometimes used the card multiple times during a single day.
Police were notified of an incident at the gas station by Bosselman Enterprise’s loss prevention manager regarding a fuel scam, the outlet said. During the investigation, law enforcement found that somebody was exploiting a glitch in a recent software updated that enabled customer rewards cards to be managed at the pump. It was pushed out with a demo mode that could be activated by swiping a rewards card twice in succession.
In demo mode, the pumps would dispense gas without customers entering a payment method.
Thompson pumped 7,413.59 gallons of gas — totaling more than $27,800 — between November 2022 and June 2023, police say; they claim she also allowed another person to use her card for a fee. According to law enforcement, surveillance video and the use of her reward card information helped them identify Thompson.
The exploit was patched in June of 2023 and Thompson reportedly sold the card soon after. It’s unclear what value the card would have had, as investigators said it did not accumulate any reward points because it was never associated with real fuel purchases.
