Over six months, Dawn Thompson visited a single gas station in Lincoln, Nebraska 510 times. She pumped 7,413 gallons of fuel. She paid nothing. The total loss to the station came to $27,860.27, calculated at an average of $3.758 per gallon across the period she was using the pump.

Thompson, 45, was arrested and charged with one count of felony theft by unlawful taking of $5,000 or more. Her bond was set at $7,500.

How the Glitch Worked

The pump vulnerability traced back to a software update pushed to the fuel dispensers at the Pump and Pantry station, a location operated by Bosselman Enterprises, in November 2022. The update was designed to manage, among other things, the station's rewards card system. What it introduced instead was an accidental backdoor.

If a customer swiped a rewards card twice in quick succession, the pump would enter demonstration mode. In demo mode, the machine behaves as though it is running a test cycle. Gas flows. The counter runs. No payment is processed. Anyone who knew the trick could fill their tank for free, repeatedly, without triggering any immediate alert at the register.

Thompson was using the method multiple times per day. The glitch remained active from November 2022 until June 1, when the station identified the vulnerability and pushed a fix.

The Rewards Card and the Man Who Gave It to Her

When investigators questioned Thompson, she told them she had not discovered the glitch on her own. She said she received the rewards card from a man who was paying off a debt related to a car. According to her account, the man was aware the card could be used to get free gas and sold her on the arrangement. Thompson told police she paid him $500 for fuel purchases that, at standard pricing, should have cost around $700.

Investigators attempted to follow up with the man Thompson named. They could not reach him. He had died earlier in the year.

That left Thompson as the only person authorities could place at the pump. Surveillance footage from the station documented her there on multiple occasions across the full six-month window.

How It Was Caught

The case came to light when the loss-prevention manager at Bosselman Enterprises reported the problem to police in October. By that point, the glitch had already been closed for months, but the financial damage had been recorded. Investigators were able to reconstruct the full picture using transaction logs, the card's usage history, and the station's video surveillance archive.

The 510 swipes, the 7,413 gallons, and the $27,860.27 figure were all pulled from station records. Thompson was arrested and is free on bond pending a court hearing.