Station’s Cheap Gas Promotion Turns Into a Traffic Stopper

What started out as a gasoline price cut to promote a new service station in Fullerton Friday spurred a flurry of complaints and a mini-gridlock.

The complaints came from area business owners, the police and the customers, some of whom had to wait in line for more than 2 1/2 hours to buy unleaded gas for 29 cents a gallon.

“It just got out of hand,” said Mobil service station owner Chuck Throop, 30, decked out in Army fatigues in keeping with his theme of a “friendly” gas war. “I thought 29 cents would be a big deal, but I didn’t think it would be that big of an attraction . . . we can’t control all these people.”

Throop said the gas war was staged as part of an advertising campaign for the grand opening of his father’s Unocal 76 station, located directly across the street. The event was supposed to last from 12 a.m. to 7 p.m., he said.

But shortly after it started, the Throops began receiving complaints from area businesses around Commonwealth and Raymond avenues about lines of gas customers blocking the entrances to their properties.

Throop said the police finally threatened to bill both him and his father for the city’s cost of controlling traffic, which was backed up for several blocks, if they continued with the event. The sale ended at 2:30 p.m.--and prices shot back up to 91 cents at the Unocal station and 85 cents at Mobil.

“This type of situation really brings out the bad in people,” Throop said. “I have people coming up to me and complaining that they had to wait in line two or three times because the police cut them off. If we hadn’t had this many people, it would have been fantastic.”

One customer, Mike Blanchard of Fullerton, said he waited 2 hours and 45 minutes to buy 14 gallons of gas.

Throop said he and his father had thought the war theme was clever. Employees of both stations dressed in fatigues, and several military vehicles, including an American World War I tank and a German army motorcycle, were brought in as props.

“Unfortunately, we did too good a job . . . “ Throop said. “Actually, I guess it was overdone.”

Sgt. Jeff Roop, a Fullerton Police Deparment spokesman, said any time police are called to control crowds or parking for a special event that is considered a disturbance, the offender can be fined between $50 and $100.