Is Kleptomania a UK problem?
 

Last weekend as my mom and I pulled into the Tesco superstore to fill up I got out to grab a squeegee stick to start washing the windshield (windscreen, sorry lol). When I couldn't find any I said "sorry mom, there are no squeegees here". She said "of course there aren't. They would be all be stolen if they had them". Is it time for my mom to take a little rest or is there any validity to her concern?

Don't cart her off to the old folks home just yet.

Years ago on my first visit to a Greek island, I noticed all these lovely wicker tables and chairs being left outside overnight, on restaurant dining patios. There was nothing to stop someone from driving up and loading some into the back of a truck. I imagined how long they would be there if someone did that in downtown Toronto. Answer, not long. I doubt that they would last any longer in Irving, Texas either.

Nowadays, it is quite common for people to watch for courier services delivering a package to a house and leaving it at the door. They then drive into the driveway, get out of their car, steal the package and drive away. There doesn't seem to be anything that someone won't steal, you can even find youtube videos of people stealing outdoor planters and Xmas decorations. People steal the change they find in parked cars or a pair of sunglasses. A squeegee would probably be a big haul for them.

I have never seen a squeegee at any UK petrol station in any case.

And now you know why ....

It's not kleptomania that's to blame, it's the rain. Because it drizzles so much in the UK, people often steal squeegees to use for wiping off their eyeglasses. In the west of Scotland, the squeegee doubles as a popular weapon for swatting away midges. It can also be useful for spearing pickled onions at the pub. Hope this explains the cultural difference.

There should be tissue/paper towels available, probably more to comply with health and safety regs than to clean your windscreen right enough. It works just as well.

Here we still have attendants to do the job for you as self service pumps have yet to catch on. Which doesn't surprise me as they'd be more interested in getting free petrol than a sponge. ;)

The only reason people in Britain (and elsewhere) don't help themselves to "free" petrol is that most petrol stations have an armada of surveillance cameras aimed at the pumps in every possible angle to always film the thief and his number plates. You definitely don't get far. I had a colleague who, in a hurry, forgot to pay (at a German or Dutch station IIRC). The cops called within 15 minutes. He returned to the station, paid and probably said sorry a thousand times.

FWIW petrol theft is a real problem in France. Pretty much every highway petrol station has number plate recognition built into their security system or an employee write the number plates onto piece of paper and strike it off the list when you paid. Moreover, it's not uncommon in the night for them to operate on a prepaid basis (i.e. either you pay by card at the pump or you pay the cashier X€ and the pump stops when it reaches the petrol/diesel equivalent of X€). The only reason why they don't use it during the day is probably that it takes longer to refill thus reducing revenue.

I wonder it could be a liability issue. If you didn't check the squeegee before hand and smeared stuff or scratched you windscreen with what ever is on it, I'm sure some people would try and sue.

My supermarket petrol station has nothing, not even people. Its 100% self serve pre-pay at the machine. If they squeegees they'd need to employ someone to fill up the buckets with water etc.

My local petrol station has just had totally self service pumps installed. You can use a card to pay for petrol and never have to set foot in the shop. The staff reckon it'll be a while before people catch on. It's a provide card before fuel is dispensed type which should cut down on people driving away without paying. I know someone at university who did that by mistake. He went back and paid as soon as he realised about 15 mins later but by then the police were looking for him. He'd been in to the shop and bought some chocolate just forgot to pay for the petrol. The guy behind the counter said he was as much to blame for not asking about the petrol.

I just do not understand why they are not more common. They have been around in the UK for donkeys years and yet they still seem to be treated as if they were some kind of newfangled gizmo that only the most technologically savvy can get their head around. Compare that to, among others, France where they have been the most common mode of fuel delivery for the last 25 years or so.

You mean there are pumps in the UK that dispense gasoline without paying for it first? :eek: I don't think we had pumps like that in the US since the 1970's.

The aforementioned Tesco uses cards at the pump and no need to go inside to pay.

I don't think it's the delivery that's difficult (give enough of an incentive and people will queue round the block to use it - witness my local Asda and its cheap fuel) but rather the lure of the perennially eclectic stock of the petrol station shop. Why simply fill up with your card, when you can pick up a pint of milk, a bottle of fizzy water, an e-cigarette refill, a Ginsters pasty*, some screen wash, a bag of charcoal briquettes, a can of deicing fluid and, on special offer this week, a 12V hand warmer? Oh, and a tin of those boiled sweets dusted in icing sugar.

* Been spending most our lives living in a Ginsters paradise...

When I first moved to Finland 30 years ago, there were still phone boxes. In each, on the little shelf underneath the telephone, was a used-but-NOT-mutilated directory; not chained down or anything, just there. I remember thinking -- 'Wow! I wonder how long that would last in downtown TO or Irving, Texas?!?' :)

I currently live in a small town (3000+/-) in Canada. There is a 'phone box' on the main street and I had a look, it has a phone directory (but with a tether). There is no doubt though that public telephones are almost non-existent in Canada now. But mutilating or stealing the directories was never a major thing in my memory of growing up in Toronto. I don't know about Irving, Texas. ;-)

Ah, it is the service station equivalent of the going-through-a-maze-of-shops to reach your gate at airports with the aim of generating impulse buys , then? As someone who almost never buy anything in either airport shops or petrol stations, I am largely impervious to that so had not appreciated that angle.