JEANNA DUERSCHERL | The Roanoke Times

Angelo Gianni stands next to the sign his wife put up after the couple experienced several gas thefts in one day at their store in Salem.

The Roanoke Times

In black letters beside a busy boulevard, a Salem convenience store is railing against fuel thefts that have risen with gasoline prices.

"If you want free gas, eat beans," says the message board at Pure Fast Stop on Apperson Drive. "Must prepay."

On the other side of the board, co-owner Jaime Gianni said it with a little more gusto.

"Up to our gas with drive-off thieves," she wrote.

Gasoline drive-offs were relatively uncommon until this month when, in a single day, three drive-offs cost the business $250, Gianni said.

It shattered her belief that she could still offer old-fashioned, pump-and-pay convenience.

After the thefts, Pure Fast Stop decided to make cash customers pay before pumping, joining many other gasoline retailers that do the same.

It was a reluctant step, but the only sure way to prevent stealing, said Gianni, who owns the business with her husband, Angelo.

Gas prices in the Roanoke metro area hit an all-time high of $3.88 Wednesday, up 3 cents overnight and 89 cents from a year ago, according to AAA Mid-Atlantic.

Gianni said she knows customers miss the convenience of the old pump-and-pay approach and some have said so.

"I've never stolen anything in my life," one customer, appearing resentful about the new policy, told cashier Gelsy Amaral at Pure Fast Stop, Amaral said.

"Sir, you're taking this personally," she said she told him.

"Yes, I am," the customer told Amaral.

Another downside is financial. As prepayment has become common, many consumers have responded by paying with a credit or debit card at the pump.

Who wants to go inside twice to fill up, once to lay down a cash deposit and a second time to collect the change?

But with less foot traffic in stores, retailers stand to sell fewer munchies, cold drinks and tobacco that offer a higher profit margin than gasoline.

In addition, shopkeepers owe a fee to the middleman that transfers the money from the customer's account to the store's. And, in some cases, the larger the transaction, the larger the fee.

The fees add up.

"Banks and credit card companies have made a windfall," largely at the expense of the gasoline retailers, said Michael O'Connor, president and chief executive officer of the Virginia Petroleum, Convenience and Grocery Association.

To make matters worse from the standpoint of Virginia retailers, merchants must pay the state gasoline tax at the time of fuel delivery, O'Connor said. If there is a theft, not only do they lose the gas, but the retailers also lose the tax money paid upfront, he said.

Over time, the burden of rising electronic payment fees could force plastic-using consumers to pay a higher price than cash customers to cover the transaction fee, said Atul Patel, who owns a chain of Roanoke Valley convenience stores.

Patel said he would support such a change.

For now, Patel is directing his managers to require prepayment unless the manager recognizes the customer standing at the pump as trustworthy, in which case the manager turns the pump on even without the swipe of a credit or debit card. The cash, credit and debit prices are the same.

There may be some relief in sight.

Reported gasoline drive-offs are declining, a change credited to the spread of prepayment policies.

During the first four months of last year, there were 48 gasoline drive-offs reported to Roanoke police. There were 24 reports during the same period of 2008, police said. Roanoke County has had 25 reports during the first five months of the year. County figures for past years weren't available.

Roanoke Commonwealth's Attorney Donald Caldwell said another possible explanation for the low number of reports is underreporting.

He said he thinks some retailers who are victimized choose not to report it. They may instead decide it is not worth the time and trouble to see a complaint through the court system, spending time on a legal matter worth perhaps $50 when they could be minding the store.

Angelo Gianni of Pure Fast Stop said Caldwell's speculation has some merit. Store owners worry about creating ill will with the public if they crack down on theft.

"You're going to torque people off in the community if you prosecute one of their kids," he said. "You can't win."

But Patel said that, in his experience, officers have tracked down gasoline thieves based on a license plate and the thieves returned to settle up with the store to avoid prosecution.

The Roanoke courthouse keeps no data on gas-theft prosecutions.

Ronald Albright, clerk of the Roanoke General District Court, said he could recall "a couple" in the recent past. The penalty for a first offense, a misdemeanor, is a $250 fine. A second offense could cost a driver his or her license, O'Connor said.

Caldwell warned that as long as gasoline prices are relatively high and stores aren't activating the pumps without prepayment, gasoline thieves may turn to stealing gas from private vehicles using a siphon, or hose.

Roanoke County has received three reports of thefts or attempted thefts by that method in the past six months.

Locking gas caps that protect a consumer's investment in fuel are available at auto parts retailers for less than $20 in most cases. Not surprisingly, they're selling.

"We have seen an increase in our sales of locking gas caps, especially over the last six weeks," said Kevin Fabinak, a merchandise manager at Advance Auto Parts.

The company declined to give any figures, but said the trend is nationwide.

There have also been reports, also nationwide, of thieves ducking underneath vehicles to drain gas directly from tanks through a hole made with a drill or other instrument.