Higher gas prices are bringing an increase in the number of motorists driving off without paying, distributors and police say, and some say the cure may be requiring customers to pay before pumping.

“The best way to prevent it would be to prepay at the pump, but the merchants have other things they’re looking at,” said Vicksburg Deputy Chief Richard O’Bannon. “If (customers) pay after they pump, they’re more likely to purchase other things.”

Richard Waring of Waring Oil, a distributorship with 47 stores across the state, said he likes the idea of prepaying, but competition makes those decisions.

“If everybody did it, I’d do it in a heartbeat,” he said. He said driveoffs cost his company “tens of thousands of dollars” a year.

John Moak of Moak Petroleum and owner of five local gas stations said prepayment is inconvenient for the customer. But, the driveoffs that happen weekly are just as inconvenient for station owners.

“At $2 plus for gas, we have to measure the inconveniences verses gas driveoffs,” he said.

Marinda Terry, manager of Texaco Interstate No. 4 on Indiana Avenue, said gas prices are stimulating the driveoffs.

“Once prices get high, they might not have the money, and they’re going to drive off with your gas,” she said.

Waring said some cities in the Southeast, “particularly in South Carolina,” are requiring prepay, cutting down on the driveoffs and the cost to law enforcement budgets.

In Vicksburg, though, O’Bannon said, “This is a small town. Everybody looks at everybody more trusting.” O’Bannon moved to Vicksburg from Biloxi three years ago.

One Vicksburg gas station manager said being nice to the customers is all that can be done for now.

“There’s always going to be a certain amount of bad folks no matter what you do,” said Doyle Martin of Chevron Interstate Food Stop No. 38 on U.S. 61 South, where gas prices climbed 4 cents to $2.05 Thursday. “The best thing to do is try to be nice to the customers so maybe they won’t do it.”

Last year’s crime statistics from the Vicksburg Police Department show that 1,998 thefts occurred. Of those, about 800 to 900, were gas driveoffs, accounting for half of the city’s thefts in 2004.

This year, about 114 “gas and dash” incidents have been reported in the city and about 130 in the county, said Sheriff Martin Pace. The county’s general thefts reached 246 in 2004.

“We have more calls (for gas driveoffs) than anything in Warren County combined,” Pace said.

“We have to pay for the gas,” Moak said. “It ties up the police, it ties up our time – it gets expensive.”

O’Bannon suggests that gas station merchants could also limit the amount a person is allowed to pump without prepaying.

“They could put a deposit down,” he said.

Howard Waring, also of Waring Oil Company, said employees are trained to prevent gas theft.

“We try to get our attendants to talk on the speaker (to the customer) while they’re pumping their gas,” he said. “If you talk to them, they aren’t as likely to steal.”

The maximum penalty for driving off without paying for gas is a $273 fine or suspension of the driver’s license, O’Bannon said.

But, he said all the merchants want is their money.

“They’re not so interested in pursuing criminal charges,” he said. “They would have to take the time off from work. (Going to court) costs more that the original drive-off.”

The stations hit most often are near the highways, “where it’s easy in and easy out,” Richard Waring said, and the crime is rampant in places other than Vicksburg.

“Some places in Jackson that don’t have one (gas drive-off) a month are reporting four or five a day,” he said.