City considers measure curtail gas thefts

Greenfield officials are thinking about strongly encouraging all gas stations in the city to go to prepay for gas in addition to paying at the pump in hopes of drastically reducing gas driveoffs.

Interim Police Chief Bradley Wentlandt told the Greenfield Legislative Committee last night that Green Bay had virtually eliminated gas driveoffs by eliminating investigations at stations that do not have prepay. Instead, the owners must write a report, get the registration information from the state Department of Motor Vehicles based on eye witnesses or surveillance videos, and then give the information to police who take it from there, Wentlandt said.

The vast majority of Green Bay gas stations have gone to prepay, he said.

He met with Greenfield gas station owners and all were in favor of going prepay except one, Wentlandt said. That one has a competitor nearby in New Berlin and he is afraid of losing business to the New Berlin station because it would not have prepay.