This is the account of a female motorist who had gone to purchase petrol for her vehicle. Imagine her surprise when, after paying for the gas, she started to drive off and decided to look down at the gas gauge.

ONE OF my greatest fears as a female motorist is for my car to shut off on the road, especially during peak hours and at a stop light. So when I left my house this cloud-blanketed afternoon, I know that my first stop would have to be at the gas station. The amount of gas I had in my car was low - about a quarter tank. I never allowed it to get any lower, since I was informed by experts in the auto industry that we can end up damaging our engines if we make it a habit of driving with less than a quarter tank of gas. Furthermore, I was not about to bring any problems on myself this day, with the rain issuing constant threats.

My son, incidentally, was behind the steering wheel. We entered this St Andrew gas station, pulled up at the pump and ordered $1,000 worth of 87 gas.

The attendant did the usual - inserted the gas nozzle in the tank but, strangely enough, immediately after doing so, he came to the window to collect the money. I thought, "That was quick, but then again, maybe in the interest of time he was collecting while the pump was still running."

Uneasy

I gave him the money and he promptly withdrew the nozzle. It had finished running. I looked at the pump. It registered $1,000. My son started driving out of the gas station.

Unease provoked me.

I glanced at the gas gauge. It never moved. I told my son we are not going anywhere, we have to investigate this.

But the attendant insisted that he had put $1,000 worth of gas in the tank and proceeded to show that the pump registered $1,000.

After a while arguing with the attendant, we demanded to see the manager. He emerged from the building and I put my case to him. If I did not get the right amount of gas, as I was claiming, he said he would know because his system was computerised and it was a simple matter of checking.

After a few minutes in the office, the manager came out and went straight to the attendant. He was angry, pointing at him and arguing with him. He came over to us at the car and apologised.

It turned out that his employee had rigged the pump and put only $500 worth of gas in the tank.

How many $500 - or more - had he stolen from unsuspecting motorists? How widespread is this theft?

Sometimes there's nothing wrong with the calibration of the pump. We can't say the same for some of those manning them.