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Every forecourt operator has experienced the dreaded drive off, sometimes a genuine mistake as drivers get distracted by the ever increasing selection of food etc. available on forecourts these days and really do forget to pay for their petrol. Often however it's not so innocent and on some busy forecourts it is a daily occurrence.

A driver will simply tank up and drive off! In this case the manager must check cameras, call the police, do the paperwork etc. - a giant pain in the neck to all concerned. I did suggest armed guards on the forecourt but the boss was not happy with that suggestion. He asked me if I was crazy , he said that 99.9% of all customers were normal upstanding citizens and they wouldn't take kindly to guns on the forecourt. He then told me about a story he spotted on the forecourt trader website, he said it proved his point.

It seems that a customer walked into a forecourt shop in Leicester, England, only to find an armed robbery in progress. The customer found himself looking down the barrel of a gun, but insisted that he wanted to pay for his petrol and proceeded to do so, then he left leaving the gunman to get on with his robbery.

Personally I think the customer paid because of the gun to his head, proving my point about armed guards, but the boss insisted that the customer paid despite the gun to his head. He then went on to say (rather rudely I thought) that that was why he was the boss and I was in the complaints department. Point taken boss... point taken.