Remember when, very briefly, and for only a few but very vocal motorists (as in electric motor-ists), gas stations were absolute hellscapes where any manner of unpleasantness might go down, and at a minimum, they were filthy places one vacated as quickly as possible once the precious fuel had been dispensed? This guy laid it on particularly thick.
As entertaining as the destination of that link is, I’m actually thinking of that guy because, truth be told, gas stations can be sketchy places where weird things go down. Most are not, of course, as we live in the year 2026, and if you’re in a decently populated area, your local gas stations are probably perfectly benign, well-lit places to fill your tank and potentially grab a roller hot dog. The hot dog is the scariest thing in this scenario.
… Usually. There are times, late at night and well off the beaten path, that a gas station can feel like a spooky or even menacing place. The only truly off-putting gas station I’ve encountered was in the most middle section of nowhere between Texas and Rhode Island, where I found myself in need of gas as the family slept. The gauge was close enough to E that stopping sooner rather than later felt prudent, and Waze said a station was nearby, so why wait? A few turns and barely a mile off the highway, I thought I had somehow been transported to a primordial forest. As I crested a hill, the gas station appeared: two dimly lit pumps, an open sign in the window, and a collapsing door over the lone service bay. Two figures appeared as silhouettes, each with the faint orange glow of a cigarette in their head shapes. One nudged the other to look at the stranger they were about to meet.
(Unrelated scene from Duel, enjoy!)
I noped right out of there and drove like a hyper-miler to make sure I made it to a legit fuel-and-food oasis butted up to the highway and full of both light and patrons. I’ve seen horror movies, I know what’s up.
Your turn. What’s your sketchiest gas station experience?
Top graphic image: DepositPhotos.com
In 2000, I went to work for a small startup, and the day after Christmas, they had me fly out to Phoenix to get some training on a programming language I was going to be working in. I’ve never been to Phoenix before and was going to be staying at a hotel near the airport, so when I got there and settled, I went to the front desk to find out where I can get some dinner. It’s somewhat late, and the concierge tells me the in-house restaurant is closed. My options are a Jack in the Box in one direction and something else further away. So I choose to head to the Jack in the Box.
I get over to the Jack in the Box, and the doors to it are locked, but they are still taking orders through the drive-thru. I walk up to the drive-thru window and explain my situation to the worker, and they tell me that I can order food once they take care of this next car. I won’t go into what happened with this car, but to say the least, they were two ladies that had been drinking, weren’t happy they had been waiting to be served, and wanted to know if I was offended by their behavior (I wasn’t, I just wanted food!). So they finally get their food, speed off, and I get my food and start heading back to the hotel.
Now here’s where the gas station comes into play. I’m walking back, and across the street is the gas station, and I see two cars pull in by the pumps. One is a taxi cab, and another is some sedan and pulls in really close behind the taxi. The driver of the other car gets out and walks up to the taxi and starts arguing with the taxi driver. This goes on for a moment, when I hear someone yell out, “Oh my eye! You poked my eye out!”. The guy who had walked up to the taxi rushes back to his car, gets in it, and drives off. The taxi driver yells for someone to call the cops, and I think rushed inside the gas station. At that point, I decided I needed to get out of there since I had witnessed it, but didn’t want to be any part of it, so I just booked it back to my hotel, ate my hamburger, and called it a night.
I was there for a couple more days, but made sure I made friends with the other people in the training and ate at other places so I never had to go back there.
Driving through Northern Cali – stopped in Redding to get some gas. Pulled up and was just about to get out when I noticed the car next to me. Older woman was at the pump on the other side cursing under breath and “slamming” anything she could. It was then I noticed that both her hands were heavily bandaged – like mittens, so she was having a hell of a time doing anything to put gas in her car. As I was about to get out of the car and offer to help, I noticed a cloud of smoke – she was smoking a cigarette and had no intention of putting it out. I promptly started the car up and drove away – just as the gas station attendant ran out with a fire extinguisher. I still remember the rear view mirror – lady ducking behind the gas pump, holding the dripping nozzle and trying to put it back in her car, but the attendant attempting to spray her so she would NOT do that and hopefully put out the cigarette at the same time.
We never stop for gas in Redding anymore.
Back when I lived in Fort Lauderdale, I was on my way home one night and realized I had zero gas in the tank and basically coasted into one of those 30 pump mega stations. During the day this place would let you pump then pay, but late at night like this was, you had to go to this little pillbox building in the middle and prepay. I’m standing in line with a bunch other people and started looking in my wallet trying to decide how much gas to get. I look up and 2 dudes are also looking in my wallet and saw the $800 or so I had in there. I finally get to the cashier, give him $20, and start heading back to my stupid lifted Suburban when I realize those same 2 dudes are following me. I just walked right to the drivers door and grabbed a tire iron I kept under the front seat and walked back around to the filler side of the truck making a point to let them see me place the iron on top of my rear tire. They both did a 180 at exactly the same time and walked away. It’s the closest I ever came to getting mugged.