Created: 2/12/2008 6:40:55 PM 
By Grayson Kamm First Coast News
CAMDEN COUNTY, GA -- Gas is no longer on sale at two Southeast Georgia stations, after what an official said may be one of the worst cases of shorting gas customers he's seen in nearly 40 years on the job.
Confused drivers circled the pumps at a Cisco Travel Plaza along Interstate 95 in Camden County on Tuesday. A rope strung along the row of pumps kept them from pulling in to fill up. The story behind the shutdown: the pumps had been shut down by the state.
"They're manipulating the mechanism... [It's a] serious case," said Georgia Commissioner of Agriculture Tommy Irvin, speaking with First Coast News by phone from Atlanta.
Irvin says his inspector followed a tip and found what the longtime commissioner says may be one of the worst cases of shorting gas customers he's seen since he took office back in 1969.
"Looks very suspicious to me," Irvin said. "Substantial shortage, too. Every pump. That means somebody's manipulating them."
At a Cisco Travel Plaza off I-95's Exit 6 in Camden County, Irvin says when the pumps showed five gallons, the inspector's test tanks were more than a quart short.
After he had shut down and sealed off all of the nozzles at the gas station at Exit 6, the inspector headed down the road to the Cisco Travel Plaza at Exit 1. Irvin says the inspector found the same issue there -- a strong sign it's no accident.
"The cases where we've found substantial shortage on all nozzles leads us to believe it's a good possibility it might prove to be deliberate. If it's deliberate, we're going to bring criminal charges," the commissioner promised.
Those charges may mean prosecution, plus fines that Irvin says could hit $1,000 for every gas customer allegedly cheated by these stations.
"We owe it to the public to make sure we handle it in a fashion that they'll never do it again," Irvin said.
Staff members at the Georgia Department of Agriculture have contacted their counterparts in Florida, Irvin said, so the Sunshine State can keep a close eye on stations south of the border.
First Coast News left messages by phone and in person for the manager of those Cisco gas stations on Tuesday. The requests have not been answered.
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