Irvine : Motorist Offers Uzi to Pay Gasoline Bill
Sometimes people don’t have enough money to pay for gasoline at service stations, a petroleum company official said. So they leave collateral such as watches, wallets or jewelry until they can get the money to pay.
On Tuesday, a man driving a motor home offered a gas attendant at a Mobil station something different--an Uzi semiautomatic machine gun, Irvine police said.
The attendant told Irvine police that the man, who had rung up a $23 debt for gas, had no money and said that his credit card was overdrawn. After the attendant decided not to accept a check, the man offered him the unloaded gun, said Mobil Oil Corp. spokesman Jim Carbonetti, who would not identify the attendant at the company’s University Drive station.
The attendant on duty at the station Tuesday afternoon would not comment.
Carbonetti said the attendant called police to check the permit of the gun. Irvine Police Sgt. Scott Cade said a check showed that the gun was legally registered in the motorist’s name.
So the gun owner drove off, leaving the attendant with the weapon. Carbonetti said he hopes the gun soon will be reclaimed.
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