With just simple tools, thieves can drill holes in fuel tanks and siphon off fuel, leaving car owners to bear costly repair expenses.

One day in late March, while driving his pickup truck with his girlfriend to breakfast near Scottsdale, Arizona, Tasi Malala noticed his car was running low on gas, the fuel gauge dropping unusually fast. He pulled over at a gas station to refuel and discovered the cause.

"I looked under the car and saw gasoline gushing out," Malala, 31, told the Washington Post. "I was really scared."

Malala's fuel tank had been drilled through by thieves to steal fuel. As a result, he spent nearly $3,000 on repairs and his car was out of service for a week.

Similar cases to Malala's are on the rise in the U.S., as the Iran conflict drives up gasoline prices. According to GasBuddy data, the average price of gasoline at US gas stations exceeded $4 per gallon for most of April. In February, before the conflict, the average price of gasoline in the US hovered below $3 per gallon and had not exceeded $3.25 in the past year.

With this new method, thieves only need a few minutes to act, equipped with a hand drill and a gasoline can, or even just a few plastic containers, which is quicker and more efficient than using a hose inserted into the tank.

"I wish they would just siphon the gasoline, not drill through the tank," he said.

A trail of diesel fuel on the ground indicates that a truck belonging to the St. Vincent de Paul charity in St. Louis, Missouri, had its fuel tank punctured. (Photo: Society of St. Vincent de Paul)

In Los Angeles, where gasoline prices are among the highest in the U.S., around $6 per gallon, insurance advisor Lupes Armas says his workshop now receives nearly weekly claims for punctured fuel tanks, whereas previously it was only a few times a year at most.

"Clearly, this has become a problem," Armas said.

Insurance companies are also reporting an increase in claims for fuel tank theft. However, because the conflict has only been going on for a few weeks and gasoline prices have only just risen sharply, the available information is mostly scattered, according to NAMIC, an association representing insurance companies in the U.S. Experts believe more time is needed to assess the severity of the situation.

"Hopefully this is just a temporary phenomenon," said Brett Odom, vice president of policy at NAMIC. Damage of this type is usually covered under comprehensive auto insurance policies.

The current fuel tank drilling incidents are quite similar to the previous wave of catalytic converter thefts. In those cases, thieves used chainsaws to cut the component from the vehicle to recover the precious metal dust inside, according to Bob Passmore, vice president of personal insurance at the American Property and Casualty Insurance Association.

The increase in fuel tank drilling comes as the use of siphon tubes becomes increasingly difficult. This old method dates back to the 1970s, when the U.S. faced prolonged gasoline shortages. Thieves would open the fuel tank cap, insert a tube, suck on one end of the tube, and then spit out the gasoline upon contact with their mouth.

This method was inconvenient but did not damage the vehicle. To counter this, the car owner bought a fuel tank cap with a lock and paid closer attention when parking. Fuel theft is also much more difficult to carry out, as newer cars have narrower and more curved tank necks, or internal baffles to block the suction tube.

A hole in the fuel tank of a St. Vincent de Paul charity truck. Photo: Society of St. Vincent de Paul

Gas thefts generally increase with rising gas prices. Gas stations in the US have seen more instances of people filling up and leaving without paying, and have responded by requiring payment before pumping. Some cases have been caught when thieves inserted pipes into underground tanks at gas stations to steal fuel.

This situation also occurred in 2022, when gasoline prices in the US briefly reached a record high of $5 a gallon due to the Ukraine conflict.

One April morning, staff at the St. Vincent de Paul charity in St. Louis discovered a black stain on the ground next to the truck they use as a "mobile depot" for food distribution.

Michael Meehan, the organization's executive director, said the thief had drilled a large hole in the bottom of the fuel tank, rendering the truck temporarily out of service. The charity had to find alternative ways to continue its food distribution operations.

However, Meehan said he felt some sympathy for the perpetrators, believing it was another sign that many people are struggling. "But if they had only stolen the gasoline, we might have saved more money," he said.