These Are Your Worst Gas Station Experiences

It's hard to believe soaring gas prices wouldn't be the worst part of stopping at a gas station. If I'm paying over $60 to fill my tank, I shouldn't have to worry about food poisoning or having my credit card details stolen straight from the pump. The only way it could get worse is if I had to duck a sketchy cash payout from a Republican Senate candidate.

We asked our readers last week about their worst experience at a gas station. Roughly half of the stories in the comments section were about incompetent employees and reckless station owners. From a gunfight to tainted apples, we read through it all and had zero clue what would shock us next. There were a few anecdotes with a silver lining, but many of you were paying for more than gas at the end of your tales. Without further ado, here are the gas station visits that absolutely no one wants to repeat:

When out traveling for my sales job, I ate a gas station apple. I was in a hurry and wanted a "healthy" snack. What could possibly go wrong with an apple?

Of course, this was one of those setups where the apples were just sitting out in a basket on the counter where anybody could walk by and touch them, feel around for the best one and leave behind whatever vile pestilence was on their filthy hands.

Of course, being in a hurry, I didn't wash the apple and just downed it while driving to my next appointment. It even tasted pretty good.

Fast forward about 2 hours and things turned ugly in a hurry. Norovirus, or something similar, shows up like a freight train. Ill spare you the details, but my next trip to a gas station wasn't nearly as fun.

I should have got the sushi.

Submitted by: Factoryhack

Riding my motorcycle on a tiny 2-lane heading home after work. The weather was warm, and I had on an open-face helmet. See fresh roadkill up ahead with a couple of birds feasting. I pull to the other side of the lane, the birds see me coming and start to take off... not quickly enough. I hit one of the birds with the clutch-side mirror, and the bird explodes into feathers and gore, and splashes all over my face and chest. I keep the bike upright and pull into a BP station about a half mile up the road.

I walk in – jacket, gloves, and helmet still on – covered in bird guts. The guy behind the counter sees me and starts screaming at me and retching. Uh oh... I can smell the bird well now that I'm not going 50mph, and between that and the now-vomiting cashier, I lose it. Door opens, guy walks in, sees this horror show, and he loses his lunch.

The vomiting and screaming dies down and I explain what happened. Everyone's relieved that I didn't just come from a biker gang execution. I got myself cleaned up as best as I could in the bathroom, then helped the cashier clean up all the puke.

I have not worn an open-face helmet since.

Submitted by: 05Train

I once had a gas station attendant refuse to accept a $20 bill because he said it was counterfeit. He then called the police. The officer determined my bill was NOT counterfeit, but the fellow still refused to accept it. The officer then offered to swap my bill for one from his own wallet, but the attendant determined that the officer's bill was also counterfeit. The officer offered him a choice of either bill or none but said that regardless of his choice the cop and I were leaving in separate vehicles.

Submitted by: lawdawg314

Halfway between Toronto and Montreal on the 401, I usually stopped at the Joyceville truck stop to fill up (it was halfway at 175 miles). At the time, I had the X1/9. On the way back from getting a sandwich, I put my man's purse on the roof, unlocked the door and went my way, forgetting it on the roof. When in Montreal, I realized I didn't have my bag anymore, with my money, shades, and paperwork. When I got back in Toronto on the following Sunday, I had a message from the OPP (Ontario Provincial Police). Someone picked it up on the road and gave it them, intact. My money was still in it!

Submitted by: Luc Desaulniers (minardi)

I've had a lot, but one stands out; I had just flown out to buy my 95 NSX Targa and was road tripping it home with my gf at the time. We naturally did the first half of this first leg with the roof off and ended up needing to stop for gas somewhere in BFE Alabama (tbf almost any interaction with anything in Alabama is already the worst) at around 8 pm. I put the nozzle in and started to fill up, but also had to pee bad so I ran inside while it was filling. I came back out to find the car surrounded by 5 not-exactly-normal-looking dudes admiring it wayyy too closely (and/or the platinum blonde in the passenger seat). So I get to the car, quickly throw on the roof to at least give her some cover bc I can tell she's extremely uncomfortable, put the nozzle back while casually responding to them, trying to get out as fast as possible and even had to ask them to step back/move so we could pull out. Well, back on the interstate, doing about 70, she says she's getting cold so we roll the windows up.... and at the very top of them going up the roof pops off Fast & Furious style. I had forgot to latch it. Lands in the middle of the interstate, magically only one car ran over it, but still renders it useless, and end up having to do the rest of the 12 hours and next day with no roof. So after ~$6,000 to get a new one, yeah, I'd say that's my worst gas station experience.

Submitted by: Crash 2.0

Buc-ee's. Every time we stop for gas, most of the pumps are accompanied by unattended vehicles. Either they got gas and then decided to go shopping or they are shopping and get gas upon return. Maybe they don't get gas at all.

Submitted by: Joseph

Not me, but my wife.

She was filling up at a nearby gas station. The pump did not switch off when the tank was full, and it started spewing gas everywhere. She grabbed the handle and unclicked it, but it kept pumping, even with the handle down. She saw the emergency cutoff and slapped it, and it still kept pumping. Finally, the owner hit the cutoff for all the pumps and screamed at her for not knowing how to pump gas.

She called me up in tears, she was soaked to the skin and the inside of the van reeked of all the gas that got on her. We took the van to a detail shop and they kept it for two days to get the reek out. The gasoline spill was so bad that my wife's shoes fell apart.

I did some checking and found that the state inspector had turned off and locked out that pump a week or so earlier. They had found the nozzle would stick on and that the emergency shutoff had been bypassed. It had been locked out and the owner of the gas station must have cut the lock. We sued, but didn't get much money, because the state fines for cutting the lock bankrupted the owner.

To this day, whenever I drive my wife's van, I fill it up, even if it is at 3/4 tank. She HATES pumping gas for obvious reasons.

Submitted by: hoser68

A gradual, creeping thing, but as ethanol became predominant I realized that I no longer enjoyed the smell of gas.

Submitted by: JustSayNo

"The best part of waking up is Chevron in your cup!" 🎶

Submitted by: Joseph

It was a cold Jan evening in central NJ. For whatever reason, most of the pumps were listed as "out of order" with just a small sign on them that wasn't visible until you pulled up to the pump and neither of the attendants were being helpful in letting me know which pumps were working. After I did find a working pump, there was a noticeable time between when I stopped and when one of the attendants showed up in a less-than-thrilled mood. I told him what I wanted and then headed into the small shop to get a drink. When I came out less than a minute later, the two attendants were in a fight. One was throwing haymakers and the other swinging a squeegee. The manager/owner (?) stood there watching, telling me that "they do this sometimes, this is worse than normal" and made no effort to break them up until either they put a 2nd dent in the car and broke the rear passenger window or he noticed I was calling the police. I got to spend the next hour and a half dealing with giving statements and getting a copy of the police report. Later I got to deal with the rental agency (clearly better than it being my car) for over an hour, making sure they had enough info that I wouldn't get charged for the damage (or more so my employer). I still needed to stop by another gas station to actually get gas, which was in visual range of the first. The attendants there asked, "What was it this time that started the fight?"

Submitted by: Cluck

I also found a bag of crystal meth in front of a register. The cashier and I, who were completely oblivious as to what it was, had to google what meth looked like before either of us picked it up. He later called the police and they just said to throw it away. I still feel kind of bad for the person who dropped it. Probably ruined their night 🤣

Submitted by: Kenny Lankford

I was in Riviera Beach, FL and needed gas. I pulled into a station close to I-95 and pulled up to the pump. I got out and looked at the pump card reader and something didn't look right, so I went to pay inside. The attendant asked me why I didn't pay at the pump and I told him about the card reader looking like it may have been tampered with. So, he calls for a co-worker to watch the till while he goes out to inspect the pump. Sure enough, he start pulling off a card skimmer and stashed electronics from inside the panel. Just then, a car pulls up and a guy jumps out with a gun demanding his 'device' back. The attendant pulls his concealed weapon and shots are fired. All this time, the police were called. The police sirens scared off the bad guys before the police arrived. They all were terrible shots as the only casualty was my car... it took three bullets to the passenger side. The car was impounded as evidence and I was out of a car for a while. I got it back pretty quickly because all they wanted was the bullets for their ballistic forensics. The gas station owner gave me a gas card and a Red Bull for my trouble. The car was totaled by insurance.

Submitted by: Old_SLAAB_Guy