Several years ago at my former LZ I kept my deuces out in front of my big shop building. We were on a well traveled county road and occasionally people would knock on the door at odd hours asking for gas (usually crackheads or tweekers).
At that time I was running a 50/50 mix of WMO and gasoline as deuce fuel. Early one morning I heard a noise but didn't go to investigate. A little later I went out and noticed that the cap on one of the deuces was off and hanging by the chain. At that time I usually kept all the trucks topped off.
Someone had helped themselves to about 5 gallons of fuel......my guess is that they smelled gas and thought the deuce was a gasser.
I was going to the flea market (it was still dark) and got in my loaded deuce and took off. I got to town (about 5 miles) and on the side of the road was a beater import with a couple of scruffy looking jokers looking under the hood.
The engine was knocking like a bill collector and smoke was pouring out of the tailpipe. When I pulled up both of them had the deer-in-the-headlights look on their face. I knew these clowns had took the fuel from the tank but since I hadn't caught them in the act I figured calling the cops would be an exercise in futility.
I asked if they needed any help and one dude said "I think the engine blew up".
I said (with a straight face)...."Looks like you just got some bad fuel to me".
I jumped back in the deuce and took off but saw a local cop and stopped to talk to him.....I told him about the idiots and when I described the car he knew them. He took off to go check them out.
The next day he saw me in the deuce and waved me over......he told me when he approached them they took off running but they were caught later.....when they searched the car they found some pot and drug paraphanalia.
The car was towed to the impound lot and I don't think it ever ran again.
Sometimes karma works in your favor.
