Gas Station Dealer Pumped Up for Battle

Hoarse and fatigued, Mike Dell’Olio goes over plans for the big event Saturday as he schmoozes with a supporter at a late-night meeting in bay No. 2 at his Shell station.

“How many runners we got registered so far?” Dell’Olio asks.

The answer, he learns, is zero. The signs are up, the T-shirts printed, the fliers circulated, the media alerted, but as of Thursday not one person had registered for the Freedom Run, a 6K trot around the embattled station at Telephone and Kimball roads in Ventura.

“But you think we’re worried?” declaims Dell’Olio, a 59-year-old native of Italy who has run Shell stations for three decades. “We’re not worried. The runners will come. God will protect us, like he has before.”

“Absolutely,” says the supporter, a teacher named Paul White who lives nearby. “Without a doubt.”

If God is on Dell’Olio’s side, he figures 50 runners will converge on the station Saturday at 10 a.m., pay $30 each and do 36 laps (a bit over three miles) around the building to spotlight his cause--or, for that matter, theirs.

“AIDS, the homeless, truckers--whatever,” he says.

An announcer on the roof will kick off the festivities. Girls from the neighborhood will do cheerleading routines. A car dealer will position a dozen shiny new vehicles around the station lot as landmarks. And, most important of all to Dell’Olio, the cameras will roll: “Joggers Demand Justice for Station Owner! Film at 11!”

If only the bigwigs at Shell could act honorably, Dell’Olio says, they could avoid this embarrassment. If only they could confess that they’re squeezing independent operators out of business to take over the stations themselves . . . if only they could be honest about why his monthly rent has shot up from $3,500 to $10,000 . . . if only they would give him the $830,000 he claims his franchise is worth . . . then he would shut down the crusade and go on his way.

But there have been no confessions, and no concessions.

“We’re not trying to put dealers out of business,” said a spokeswoman for Equilon, Shell’s parent company. “Our independents are a vital part of our marketing business.”

She said rent increases at all Shell stations reflect “a new marketplace reality.” As for Dell’Olio’s monetary claim, negotiations are progressing, she said.

But not enough for Dell’Olio, who said he had to borrow $100,000 just to stay in business.

On April 1, he began to unleash a series of operatic effects worthy of a Verdi.

Summoning the press, he chained himself to a gas pump. Now he moves around freely, but wears a heavy chain looped half a dozen times around his neck, and a hat emblazoned with “Free Mike.”

At night he no longer goes home to his wife and daughter in Northridge. Instead, he sleeps in a tent on the concrete outside the station.

Customers sometimes watch over him. They bring him platters of food, congratulate him on the “Free the Mikey!” CD released in his honor, mention they heard him on a radio talk show, beep their horns a few times to show solidarity, urge him to keep on going.

“I just had to come in and hug you,” a woman said the other night after filling her tank.

On most days, Paul White drops by to help plan strategy.

An intense man who teaches gang kids in Los Angeles, White puts out frequent press releases and peppers his conversation with quotes from Malcolm X, the Bible, Margaret Mead and South American freedom fighter Jose Marti. The bottom line: The little guy has a duty to stand up for his rights--just like Mike.

Dell’Olio enthusiastically agrees.

“You want gas prices to come down?” he asks. “Nobody goes to work for a week, see? You get to know your kids again, your wife. Nobody drives! Play soccer in the streets! It’ll be the best week ever, you’ll see! And nobody will buy gas --that’ll get their attention!”

Wouldn’t that mean a general strike, I ask.

“Who said anything about a strike?” he shoots back. “Maybe call it--Family Values Week.”

On Easter Sunday, Dell’Olio is planning a lavish spread--complete with crystal goblets--on a table beside the gas pumps. Family members and a few supporters will attend. The press has been notified.

But before that can happen, there’s the Freedom Run, round and round, and round the pumps again. Dell’Olio is praying for idealists who don’t mind a little repetition as they plod the kilometers.

Why six?

A weary grin spreads across Dell’Olio’s face as he tries to clue me in.

“Everyone does 5K, 10K,” he says. “This would be 6K, see? It’s different! It’s perfect!”

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Steve Chawkins can be reached at 653-7561 or at steve.chawkins@latimes.com.