Life
Gas station manager loses job after setting gas prices to 69 cents for a day
There won't be any coming back from this one.
Randy Aragon
07.12.22

With gas prices at an all-time high, everyone dreams about the day that they’ll fall back down into a reasonable range again.

For these lucky customers, they got a short reprieve from the crazy prices when a manager’s mistake made their gas bill the lowest it’s been since the 1970s.

We’ve all made on-the-job mistakes.

For this gas station manager, a mistake cost him his job when he accidentally set the gas at 0.69 cents instead of $6.99

YouTube - Inside Edition
Source:
YouTube - Inside Edition

It was just another ordinary day in Sacramento, California, when Shell gas station manager, John Szczecina set the gas prices for the day at $6.99.

Or so he thought.

YouTube - Inside Edition
Source:
YouTube - Inside Edition

The only problem is he hadn’t.

Szczecina accidentally set the price for gas at $0.69, and soon people from all over were flocking to the gas station and lining up at the pump for the cheapest gas of their lifetime.

When the word got out on social media, people called their families and swarmed the pump to get their 0.69 cent gas

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A post shared by Darryl Surita (@sac_og_d)

The busiest day ever

The quick chaos overwhelmed the on-duty gas station attendant who had no idea what was going on, and before long, it was too late to go back.

People had lined up around the block for hours and filled up the cars at 0.69 cents a gallon

YouTube - Inside Edition
Source:
YouTube - Inside Edition

Inside Edition caught up with two brothers, Daryll and Eddie Surita, who were able to get the cheap gas

Eddie explained:

“I called my kids’ mom, I called my mom, I called my brother, instantly, I was just excited.”

YouTube - Inside Edition
Source:
YouTube - Inside Edition

It wasn’t so exciting for Szczecina.

He was immediately fired after the mess-up cost Shell $16,000.

Szczecina wasn’t even at the gas station when the costly mistake occurred, but knew he was in huge trouble as soon as he heard the news.

YouTube - Inside Edition
Source:
YouTube - Inside Edition

“Oh ya, I would fire me too, I knew I was like ‘oh I’m in big trouble,'” Szczecina told Inside Edition, he went on to say: “I don’t believe the cashier knew exactly what was goin on, people just lined up and took the gas.”

A GoFundMe was started to help.

Szczecina’s sister started a GoFundMe to try and reimburse the gas station so that he could keep his job, but they were not interested in receiving the $16,000 reimbursement for the incident.

Shell explained that they had no plans in taking legal action against him.

Better things on the horizon

Daryll Surita, who bought 100 gallons of gas for 0.69-cent, donated $160 to the GoFundMe, which is money that will now go to Szczecina to help him while he finds another job

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A post shared by Darryl Surita (@sac_og_d)

The last time gas was $0.69 was in 1978, so it’s safe to say this won’t be the new normal.

That’s right, the last time gas was this low, the Bee Gees were dominating the Billboard charts and the Dallas Cowboys were going to 5 out of 10 of the Super Bowls in the decade.

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A post shared by Lucas (@lucas_the_abstract)

Sadly, the majority of us did not get to fill our cars for next to nothing, and we’re still in the nightmare of over 4 dollars a gallon on average, but I’m guessing we’ll survive.

Learn more about this incident in the video below!

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