US officials have issued a warning after a video of a woman supposedly filling gas in a plastic bag went viral on social media.
On May 8th, 2021, a major pipeline system that transports gasoline across the East Coast revealed that it had been hacked by a cyber-criminal gang.
As a response, The Colonial Pipeline, which transports 45% of the East Coast’s supply of diesel, petrol and jet fuel, stopped all operations to deal with the threat.
This led to gas shortage panic among the nation, while photos and videos started circulating on the internet which supposedly show how some people use plastic bags to transport their surplus gasoline.
Video of gas in plastic bag is from 2019
Videos and images of gas in plastic bags quickly circulated on social media amid the gas shortage panic in the United States.
Two publications have received a lot of reactions on the internet, leaving people confused. One of them is a picture of several plastic bags filled with gas in a trunk of a car.
Another video, which first went viral on YouTube in 2019, shows a woman who appears to fill a plastic bag with gasoline at a gas station.
According to Snopes, the posts that went viral were found to be a few years old and are not from the current gas crisis.
Image of gas in plastic bags is also from 2019
The image of plastic bags with gasoline in the trunk of a car is old and first appeared in a news report in March, 2019.
As reported by Noticieros.televisa.com and translated via Snopes, the article is from March 26th, 2019 and says:
“Elements of the Federal Police Gendarmerie Division, in coordination with personnel from the Secretary of the Navy, detained the drivers of two vehicles that were transporting more than a thousand liters of gasoline in plastic bags, in the municipality of Huauchinango, Puebla.”
US officials issue warning
The US Consumer Product Safety Commission (USCPSC) took to Twitter and issued a warning after the publications with gas in plastic bags went viral.
“Do not fill plastic bags with gasoline,” the agency tweeted on Wednesday, May 12th. “Use only containers approved for fuel. Follow the gas canister manufacturer instructions for storing and transporting gasoline.”
“We know this sounds simple, but when people get desperate they stop thinking clearly,” the commission added in another Twitter post. “They take risks that can have deadly consequences. If you know someone who is thinking about bringing a container not meant for fuel to get gas, please let them know it’s dangerous.
“Sometimes when we put out a safety message like this people use it as a way to look down on others. We ask that instead you use this as an opportunity to reflect on safety in your own life.”