With gas prices rising, some local gas station employees are noticing a rise in fuel thefts.

Ibdeshama Khansaab is a supervisor at the Ultramar Gas Bar at Weber Street and Union Street in Waterloo.

While she was working one morning last week, a car pulled in and a woman filled her tank with $79-worth of supreme gas.

Khansaab waited for the woman to come inside to pay.

“But she just ran off,” Khansaab says. “I ran outside to stop her but she didn’t even stop.”

Khansaab says ever since prices started rising, they’ve had an increase in these incidents.

“In the last two weeks, every day we are having drive-offs. And it’s almost for more than 100 dollars (each time).”

“It’s always been a problem and it’s definitely picking up,” says Rick Hammond, owner of the Highland Shell in Kitchener.

“It can be dangerous too,” he adds. “Because sometimes when people take off, they speed away.”

In 2005, a deadly gas and dash prompted British Columbia’s agency in charge of worker safety to pass mandatory pre-payment for fuel.

Grant De Patie, a 24-year-old gas station attendant, tried to stop a gas theft. He was dragged to death by the vehicle.

The Ultramar in Waterloo switched over to a pre-pay only system this week.

But Hammond says he’s not ready to make that move just yet.

“We don’t like doing that because it affects our sales overall, and it really is annoying for people when they have to pre-pay.”

He says there have been some changes however.

The outside lanes are pre-pay only and he’s installed better cameras that can read license plate numbers.

The Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police (OACP) is also pressing the provincial government to pass Bill 231, tabled by Missassauga-Malton MPP Deepak Anand.

The Protecting Ontarians by Enhancing Gas Station Safety to Prevent Gas and Dash Act would make prepayment mandatory.

The OACP says in other provinces, there has been virtually no calls for service to the police relating to gas-and-dash thefts.

Gas station attendants just want the thefts to stop.

“Just be honest and pay for whatever you use,” says Khansaab.