Prevent Gas Theft

I read an article about a recent rash of incidents involving thieves that puncture the gas tank or line to steal gas. My question: is there any kind of add on to prevent this?



I saw a tech report at RockCrawler.com in which the author used a gas tank skid plate to protect his tank. Is something like this an option?



In lieu of that, do you think anything will be developed to protect the tank and line?



Any thoughts?

I think that, depending on the neighborhood, if someone wants your gasoline bad enough (or the entire car) they will get it no matter what you do.

Back in 1969 when the new Camaro Z-28s with the hot 302 engines came out someone went onto the local Chevy dealer’s lot one night and stripped both the engines and transmissions out of 2 brand new Camaros along with both sets of wheels.
They did this right on the lot under the mercury vapor lights and never got caught.
If a thief has this kind of guts then it’s not likely a skid plate is going to present much of an obstacle.

A clever thief will overcome any anti-theft device. The puncture incidents prove this, as thieves resort to it to overcome the improved antitheft measures at the filler cap. I am certain that thieves will find a way to overcome the skid plate as well. In short, anyone who wants your gasoline badly enough will get it no matter what you do.

Depends on how high your car sits off the ground. If you drive a Miata or Mini, you probably won’t ever have to worry about this, If you drive a truck/SUV, it wouldn’t hurt to put the skid plates on there, another advantage is if you get the skid plate on the tank, you’d wanna look to see if it covers up your catalytic converter too as there’s been a rash of converter thefts.