RANCHO CORDOVA, Calif. — While consumers are waking up to regular unleaded gasoline prices averaging more than $5 per gallon for the first time, some California drivers enjoyed a more comfortable kind of sticker shock.
A “glitch” at a Shell station in Rancho Cordova on Thursday allowed customers to buy gas for 69 cents per gallon for several hours, KOVR-TV reported.
The error went unnoticed by store attendants for nearly three hours, KGO-TV reported.
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“We got to fight these gas prices somehow,” Darryl Surita wrote in an Instagram post, filming the pump showing a price that had not been seen by motorists for more than 40 years. “Sixty-nine cents a gallon, I am loving this!”
The discount price was caused by a misplaced decimal point, KXTL-TV reported. The prices at the gas station were supposed to be $6.99 per gallon, but the mistake dropped the price dramatically.
“I started looking around and everybody had a smile like everybody had a big smile and they kinda were not looking at you in your eyes,” Surita told the television station. “I’ve never seen gas this price in my lifetime, could you imagine that? This is history right here.”
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Officials at the gas station declined to comment, KOVR reported.
Gasoline prices in Rancho Cordova are nearly $7 a gallon in some places and have fluctuated between $5.81 and $6.89, according to gasbuddy.com.
“I looked at the numbers and it was 69 cents a gallon,” Surita told KGO. “So you know what I did, I hit that button and it started pumping and the dollar sign just stayed low.”
The last time gas prices on average were 69 cents a gallon was 1978, according to KOVR.
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