Maybe the state I live in is just ghetto as shit. It seems like every air pump at the gas station has the top part that attaches to your tire to fill it with air stolen.

I don’t understand the value of this specific part. Why do people steal them?

      • Mostly_Gristle@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        It’s not. Nobody’s smoking crack out of the tip of a compressor hose. If people are stealing them for drug reasons the most likely answer is that they’re made of solid brass and have a decent scrap value. They’re selling them to the same guy they’re selling stolen catalytic converters and the copper wire they’ve stripped out of newly constructed homes to.

        • OberonSwanson@sh.itjust.works
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          1 year ago

          People juryrig anything they can for drugs. Plus they’d barely get 5 for the tip and while every buck counts to them it’s not a great source of cash.

        • TheGoldenGod@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          No, someone was actually doing it in a case I was in (case was unrelated). But it feels like you’re doing exactly what your irritated for me doing.

          • MoonshineDegreaser@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Why can’t it be a coincidental culmination of all of these reasons equating into a lack of compressor nozzle heads? Some people are shitty and will find easy ways to be shitty regardless of what shitty reason they’re doing the shitty thing for. It equals an mass annoyance for everyday people

            • TheGoldenGod@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              It could be all, and I never meant to imply it’s only one. Just in my situation they’ve always been addicts, worked at a gas station in my mid-teens, and have relatives with the problem. But I’ll concede the odds could be 50/50. Like most answers you’ll get here, it’s going to be from personal experience.

    • halferect@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      That’s what I always heard they were used for, they are easy to turn into a pipe so it makes sense. Also those little glass tubes with tiny roses in them that are always right at the checkout of liquor stores in shady areas are also used to smoke crack

  • Are you sure they’re being stolen and simply aren’t breaking off because they are cheap and/or people are rough with things they don’t own? I’ve had the tip break off twice when airing up my tires, and the gas station didn’t even replace them for months.

    • AngrilyEatingMuffins@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      No. This is a thing. It’s the same in my neighborhood and I came into this thread hoping for answers. There are several needle exchanges around here so I doubt it’s that but idk.

  • Chev@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    People do this? The valve is maybe worth 5 bucks if you buy it as new or probably 1-2 as used. Pretty sure it’s not about the money.

    • Bear@wirebase.org
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      1 year ago

      Addicts will steal anything. They even break into the vacuums to steal spare change that may have been sucked up.

    • OberonSwanson@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      People are trolling someone in this topic. There’s always gonna be a-holes piling in. So could be either but most likely addicts.

  • sheilzy@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I’m going to innocently guess it’s because the tips are small parts put under duress and with more use, the looser they become and just… Fall off? And then they aren’t seen on the ground of the station because people drive over them and they get scattered or smashed on the street. Of course I’m still learning to drive (in my mid-twenties) and my family members who are licensed are more often the ones who get work done on our cars. I also live in a state were self-pumping isn’t that common.