didn't mean it had happened to me, but it has happened to folks.  and not just to folks who had irritated a neighborhood kid.    the victim of a crime is not necessarily the cause of the crime.  my brother-in-law had exactly this happen to him, TWICE, when parked on a public parking lot, in a city where he did not live.  The two incidents were a year apart.  the second time, after figuring out what had happened (had to drop the tank, flush everything, and was lucky at that that it was water, not sugar), he reported the incident to authorities, who told him it was common in that locality.  Seems that local juvenile gangs used doing that as a part of an "initiation ritual" in which the perpetrators were proving that they would commit a crime.  Locking gas cap is just a simple, wise, protection against such.

mcneely

---- Mike S <mikes@FLATSURFACE.COM> wrote:
> At 06:05 PM 2/19/2011, Dave Mcneely wrote...
>
> >Well, you might see the point in locking the tank if you get a
> >"prankster" (young criminal) putting foreign material, like sugar,
> >sand, or water in the tank.  It has happened, not just a few times.
>
> Time to look for a new neighborhood, or stop telling the kids to keep
> off your lawn.

--
David McNeely