A common sight an air pump with no hose. This one was seen at the gas station at Windward and Elletson Road last Monday. - NORMAN GRINDLEY
THEY SEEM TO have disappeared into .... thin air - gas station air pump hoses that is.
If you go to many service stations across the Corporate Area and sections of St. Catherine in search of air to inflate you car tyres you are likely to see the pump but no hose, especially at night.
After interviewing employees of service stations in the Corporate Area, Portmore and Spanish Town THE STAR solved the case of the missing hoses.
We did not find the air hoses, because it turns out that they are constantly being stolen. These high-pressure hoses, are versatile and can be used for spray-painting, on trucks or just about anything.
The replacement cost of one of these hoses THE STAR understands is approximately $6,000 each.
Because of the pilferage, many service stations have remained without air hoses, though others have resorted to removing the hoses at nights and then replacing them in the day. The problem, however, is that the hoses are stolen in the daytime too.
Other parts of the air pump are also taken.
According to Ransford White, supervisor of Total, Marcus Garvey Drive, the culprits went as far as cutting the grill protecting the pump and taking the compressor for the air pump.
"Dem nuh ramp roun yah so. All de while dem tief dem. De las' one dem cut it off," explained one service attendant along Spanish Town Road.
"Is the hardest thing to keep," says Peter Croswell, owner of Shell, 94 Hope Road. He told THE STAR that although the station has a hose, they made sure to remove it at nights.
The truck (the nozzle), the part of the hose used to gets attached to the valve of the tyre, is also a popular piece for thieves.
One service attendant at Jampet, Brunswick Avenue in Spanish Town told THE STAR that it was not uncommon for three to be stolen in a month. "The man will put it on today an all three days later it gone," she said
While some stations did not have a problem with stealing, they say the hoses were constantly being damaged.
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