Be Careful When Pushing This Button At Illinois Gas Stations

If your fuel pump nozzle won't shut off at the gas station and you're starting to panic, here's what could happen if you hit the Emergency Fuel Pump Shut Off button.

Imagine you're just going about your day, stopped for some gas, and you only want to put $10 into your gas tank to last you until next payday.  As you're trying to disengage the latch to stop the fuel from pumping, it gets stuck.  What would you do?

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Well, I'll tell you what my friend did when it happened to him a few days ago.

One of my friends, Brett, posted to Facebook that he was getting gas over at the Woodman's gas station in Rockford when his "normal" day took a wild turn.

"Had a bit of an embarrassing moment earlier tonight. Went to the Woodman’s gas station to put some gas in my car. While I was pumping gas, the handle got stuck even though I had disengaged the little latch that holds the handle in place. so the gas wouldn’t stop. So I hit the emergency shut off button…which shut off ALL THE PUMPS at the station. Alarm went off, the fire department showed up…it was a mess. Felt really bad about it."

Surprisingly, this isn't the first time this pump has acted up.  Someone commented and said it happened to her just a few days prior!  Melissa said, "Was it the last pump on the north side? I got gas there on Saturday and the latch got stuck!" 

If you're at the Woodman's gas station anytime soon make sure NOT to use this pump.

Lisa commented the exact thought we all had.

"I didn’t realize that pushing the button would shut off All the pumps. I guess I assumed it would just shut off the pump you were using. It also didn’t occur to me that the fire department would show up."

Brett told me he wanted to put only $10 in his tank so he could get by until payday on Friday, but he ended up paying $18.  Doesn't seem like a lot, but when you're on a budget that's precious money!

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If you're ever in this horrible, embarrassing situation and don't know what to do, remember chaos might ensue after pulling the Emergency Shut-Off button.  Better safe than sorry!