Huckleberries Online

Sprayed!

Posted by DFO

May 19, 2009 5:20 p.m. • 5 comments

On my way home, I stopped at my neighborhood convenience store to get gas. I stuck the nozzle into the gas tank and pushed the trigger. I don’t know if it was the force from the flowing gas or what, but the entire hose POPPED OFF THE GAS PUMP, dousing me in gas! So I’ve got one end of the hose stuck in my car and the other lying on the ground and I’m covered in gas. And the manager at the store was not very apologetic when I stormed in to complain. She simply said to move to another pump, and that the 37 cents worth of gas that sprayed all over me would show up on my debit card. After some angry words, she agreed to have my clothes cleaned if I brought them back in later. It was a long, smelly drive home. I should have taken their %$#@ hose with me/Staci Lehman, Kootenai MPO. More here.

Question: Has this happened to anyone else?

Five comments on this post so far. Add yours!

Cindy_H on May 19 at 5:36 p.m.
Nope. But this will make my 14-year-old feel a lot better. A couple months ago, I pulled into Costco and allowed him the honor of filling the tank. It’s something he’ll need to know.
Anyhow, things went well until he pulled the trigger. He didn’t have the nozzle inserted all the way in, and he doused his new shoes and jeans with gasoline.
“Don’t tell my brothers,” he admonished.
And I didn’t.
I just told you— my closest friends :-)
Dennis on May 19 at 5:57 p.m.
Sprayed or ………………………… If I say it,,,,, I get a Whoopin”!!!

;-)
raymond_pert on May 19 at 7:04 p.m.
This would never happen to me here in Oregon. It’s not a self-serve gasoline state, to my ever growing satisfaction.
Stickman on May 19 at 8:15 p.m.
Since I drive for a living and fill up almost every day, I have learned to put the pump on the slowest mode, hence that never happening to me. It may take a few minutes longer, but I never smell like gas or have it sprayed everywhere. Simple.
Staci on May 20 at 8:49 a.m.
Besides Stickman’s good advice, Bent came up with another solution for me as well. I will now keep a garbage bag in the car at all times with head and arm holes cut in it to don before pumping gas. Kind of like a painting smock.

And thanks DFO for crediting me this time… sorry I forgot to tag that item with my name.

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D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.