Overview
- Northlake police alerted residents on Monday and Tuesday after reporting that criminals insert a small screw into a pump's nozzle cradle so the nozzle flapper cannot fully close and the pump keeps the prior customer's transaction active.
- Police explained how the trick works by preventing the lever from seating, which makes the pump register fuel as still being dispensed and lets a second driver fill a tank on the original payment method.
- Officers published a photo of a screw in a nozzle cradle and gave step‑by‑step advice: check the cradle before fueling, wait for the display to return to zero or prompt for a receipt, listen for the nozzle click, print your receipt, and decline unsolicited help.
- Police later revised a social post after industry contacts questioned whether a screw could always affect transactions, but the department said both the jam and a pinning of the flapper were possible and detectives are checking reports; authorities have not released incident counts or named suspects.
- The warning echoes wider pump‑switching scams nationwide and could prompt drivers to change habits, spur stations to inspect equipment more often, and lead banks to see more fraud reports if unauthorized charges appear.