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  • 2021-05-12 (xsd:date)
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  • Are People Hoarding Gas in Plastic Bags During the Shortage? (en)
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  • In May 2021, a ransomware attack on the Colonial Pipeline led to an interruption of gas services to the southeastern parts of the United States. This, in turn, lead to some panic buying as people rushed to the pumps to fill up extra containers of gasoline. On social media, photos and videos started to circulate that supposedly showed how some people were using plastic bags to transport their surplus gasoline. One photograph supposedly showed a car trunk loaded with plastic bags filled with gasoline: A video supposedly showed a woman filling up plastic bags at a gasoline pump: Both of these pieces of media are real, but neither relates to the May 2021 gas shortage in the southeastern United States. Both of these images are several years old, and one was taken outside of the United States. The picture of plastic bags filled with gasoline in the trunk of a car comes from a March 2019 incident in which two men attempted to steal gasoline from a gas station in Huauchinango, a city located north of the state of Puebla in central Mexico. Noticieros.televisa.com reported at the time (translated via Google): Elements of the Federal Police Gendarmerie Division, in coordination with personnel from the Secretary of the Navy, detained the drivers of two vehicles that were transporting more than a thousand liters of gasoline in plastic bags, in the municipality of Huauchinango, Puebla. The video of the woman filling up a plastic bag at a gasoline pump is also several years old. This video first went viral in December 2019, and supposedly shows a woman at a gas station in Houston, Texas. The video prompted the automotive website The Drive to publish an article informing people that they should never use plastic bags to transport gasoline: While neither of these pieces of media were taken in May 2021, some people truly were panic buying gasoline amidst reports of shortages. CBS affiliate Kiro 7 News reported: Reports about people filling up plastic bags with gasoline prompted the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (USCPSC) to offer some blunt advice on social media: The USCPSC went on to urge people only to use containers that have been specifically approved to carry fuel: (en)
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