OH, BUCKET ALL: Enterprising Yunus Latif drove from Queens to Connecticut to fill 30 five-gallon buckets with gas — only to be ticketed in Orange, Conn., on his way back for carrying a combustible liquid in unsafe containers (above).
OH, BUCKET ALL: Enterprising Yunus Latif (left) drove from Queens to Connecticut to fill 30 five-gallon buckets with gas — only to be ticketed in Orange, Conn., on his way back for carrying a combustible liquid in unsafe containers (above). (
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Frustrated drivers yesterday began the new work week the same way they ended the last one — wasting hours on service-station lines that don’t move and waiting for gas deliveries that don’t come.
And to make matters worse, the pump price went up by an average of nine cents a gallon in the city, the AAA said.
New Yorkers are increasingly taking their anger out on other drivers — violently.
Since Hurricane Sandy struck, 41 people have been arrested for fights at gas lines, the NYPD said.
A Stony Brook, LI, teen was arrested yesterday after he pulled a knife on a BP station employee in East Setauket when he was told they were out of high-octane gas, authorities said. Jared Giacolone was charged with menacing and criminal possession of a weapon.
Some are resorting to extreme measures to beat the gas drought.
A Queens man drove 80 miles to Connecticut Saturday with 30 five-gallon Home Depot buckets to fill up at a gas station, authorities said.
But Yunus Latif, 47, was stopped by police in the town of Orange, Conn., who gave him a misdemeanor summons for violating a regulation concerning flammable liquid.
“We went to fill them up, and police saw us and said, ‘You can take back as much gas as you want, but this is dangerous. This is not the right container for gas. When you turn on the car, you’ll blow yourself up,’ ” Latif said.
Police say the containers were not legally approved for safety by the state and were stacked up and unsecured.
Some drivers spent several fruitless hours at one station, gave up and moved on to another — where they had to wait for more hours.
Only about a third of the service stations in the city and suburbs are selling gas — and the main reason is lack of electricity rather than low supplies, the AAA said.
Additional reporting by Kenneth Garger, Ikimulisa Livingston and Selim Algar