'They ended up issuing over £200 in free petrol': Teen driver keeps customers waiting for gas for an hour after attendant refuses to let him pay

Without a photo ID, this teen driver was totally out of luck. 

As you first start driving as a teenager, you're very nervous. At age 16 or 17, you suddenly find yourself behind the wheel of a several-ton vehicle. Armed with a learner's permit, you can now take your friends to the movies or a trip to your favorite restaurant. As a new driver, you're terrified of crashing, and hyper aware of everything going on around you. It's all part of the learning process. Within a few months, you're driving with your knees on the steering wheel while eating a sandwich… But those first few months are a bit nerve wracking. 

This kid suddenly had another thing to worry about, and it's a strange one. While trying to buy gasoline, the attendant noticed that they were on the younger side, and refused to sell them gas without an ID. That put the OP in quite a pickle, as you can read in the entire story down below. 

Next up, these online sellers of Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace had some absolutely wild things for sale, like one person who sells decoy wasp nests so you can avoid getting your electricity shut off. 

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Author image for Remy Millisky Remy Millisky
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    Sky - K 2.29⁹ CIRCLE K CIRCLE
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  • 02
    Font - Yeah sure, I'll come back with ID - I only live around the corner. L First time posting and very new to this sub, so apologies if I'm not doing this right, but here goes.
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    Font - I'll give a little bit of context first: I live in the UK, where it's illegal to operate a petrol pump if you're under the age of 16 and you can take your driving test from the age of 17. The town/village I grew up in was small and had just a single petrol station with two pumps. Sometimes you'd have to wait behind a car or two, but being a small town it was never really much of an issue.
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  • 04
    Font - At the time I had just recently passed my test and had been driving for a week or two. When you pass your test they give you a temporary paper licence to use until the official one arrives in the post. These paper licences don't have a photo or anything on them, just your name, address, etc. You might already be able to work out where this is going, so let's get on to the story.
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  • 05
    Font - It was early Wednesday morning, and I had decided to drive into school. My car was almost on empty so I swung by the petrol station on the way out of town to put my regular fiver in the tank (as a broke student I could never afford to fill up more than £5-10 at a time so I was a regular visitor at the petrol station). On this particular day, there was a new server behind the counter who I guess had only just started there. Coincidentally, one of the pumps was out of order that morning, wh
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  • 06
    Font - I pull up to the pump, and at this point there's only one other car behind me. I put my measly amount of petrol in the tank and head over to the garage to pay. As I approach the counter, I notice the attendant is giving me an odd look. The conversation went something like this
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    Font - "Sorry, but can I ask to see some ID?" he says to me. "Urm, I don't have any photo ID with me" "Well I'm afraid I can't sell petrol to someone that might be under 16,"
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  • 08
    Font - A little shell-shocked at the apparent incompetence I reply "I mean, I drove a car in here, and you have to be 17 to drive, is that not proof enough?" "I'm sorry, but without ID I can't do anything" "Look, I can get my paper licence from the car but it doesn't have a photo on it" "Well it needs to be photo ID, otherwise I don't know it's really you"
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  • 09
    Font - "Right, well I live a few minutes away, I can come back with my passport in a few minutes" "Okay, but you'll have to leave the car here because I can't let you drive off without paying." At this point I'm absolutely dumbfounded. It's only a few minutes drive back home, but at least a 20 minute walk - which would mean a 40 minute round trip. Desperate to not have to walk 40 minutes home and back for the sake of £5 I try one more time: "It's gonna take me 40 minutes to get some ID, can you
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    Font - I turn around and walk out of the station, "Ok, I'll leave the car here, and come back in 40 minutes with some ID." Sure enough, I leave the garage and begin the walk home, with my car exactly where the attendant told me to leave it.
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  • 11
    Font - 20 minutes later I arrive home, but by this point I'm pretty thirsty. I always left early for school because I work better in the morning and liked to get an hour or two of work done before classes start. So with about an hour to spare before I really need to be leaving for school I decide to make myself a cup of tea, and maybe have a second breakfast.
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    Font - All the while I'm fully aware that my car is currently locked and parked in front of the only petrol pump in the whole town. About 15 minutes pass, by which point I've had a cup of tea and second breakfast, so I pick up my passport and head out the door.
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  • 13
    Font - Almost an hour after leaving the garage I arrive back, passport in hand. Sure enough, there's now a queue of 10-15 cars and a very panicked looking attendant trying to explain to a hoard of angry customers why they've had to wait for almost an hour to fill up their cars before they can drive to work. At just about the same time I arrive, the guy's manager shows up. I explain to the manager that I had to leave the car here because without ID I hadn't been allowed to pay for the petrol, and
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  • 14
    Human body - Long story short: they ended up issuing over £200 in free petrol to the waiting customers, and I was never again asked for ID.
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    Font - Edit: words Edit 2: A lot of people seem to be asking why I didn't just drive off and leave the money with them, or why I didn't call the police - I was young and ignorant, I didn't want to drive off for fear of repercussion, and I was always brought up with the understanding that you only call police for an emergency etc. the issue didn't seem important enough to involve police at that point. Also, it was the only petrol station within about 5 miles, so I guess I didn't want to get banne
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    Font - Edit 3: For those asking, yes it was a standard UK pump where the attendant authorises before pumping and you pay after. I didn't realise that was so unusual elsewhere - TIL
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    Font - Edit 4: When you pass your test, you can hand over your provisional, which they send off to the DVLA with the relevant paperwork to get your full licence. Your pass certificate acts as a temporary licence in the interim, and is all you're supposed to need. Otherwise you have to do all the paperwork and send it off yourself. (Apologies for all the edits, apparently lots of things work very differently in different countries so people have a lot of questions, and I can't reply to all of the
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    Font - ModeHopper OP. Yeah I felt kinda bad, but the actual conversation we had was a lot longer and I did try to reason with him. He might have agreed to let me move the car just outside the garage but at that point I was in a haze of rage and just wanted to maliciously comply. And they did get some free petrol so not all bad for them
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  • 19
    Font - JohnGeneric Doe I've told this story here before, but one time I was rejected from a pub because my boots 'needed to be polished'. In other words because I was a single male with no chicky-babes. I argued the point for a bit - this place was not exactly classy. The bouncer wouldn't budge, so I said 'OK' and walked two minutes to my car, which was also my home at the time, polished my boots, and was back at the door within 10 minutes. Dude was too shocked to even come up with another excus
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  • 20
    Font - error785. That dude played himself. OP had already done the "illegal" part, the pumping. Just take the f money dingus.
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  • 21
    Font - Sknowflaik If you had already pumped the gas, how could they stop you from leaving with your car? Maybe its just a cultural difference, but if I had already pumped and they refused to take my money, I would just leave. If I had cash, I would have set it on their counter, but if they refused to ring me up so I could pay with a card, I would just drive off. I tried to pay and they refused my money. That doesn't mean they get to detain me.
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