Necessity drives innovation, especially when young ambition meets empty pockets.

What began as a simple plan to mow lawns for cleat money quickly turned into a stealthy gas heist from their own driveway.

You’ll want to read on for this one!

I Stole My Dad’s Gas

Back in high school, my brother and I were trying to get some new shoes for football, and my parents didn’t have the extra money at the time, so they told us we needed to find a way to make money ourselves.

Luckily, they already had a way to make some extra cash.

Well, we already had our own clientele—houses that needed their lawns mowed when the owners went on vacation and stuff like that.

So we decided that we would ask them if we could cut their lawn for the next couple of weeks so they wouldn’t have to worry about it.

But there was one problem.

When we went to grab our lawn gear, we had no gas for the lawnmower.

So they approached their dad with a proposition.

So we went and asked my dad if we could borrow $20 so we could get the lawnmower going, and that should be enough gas to get us through a couple of lawns.

Then we could pay him back at the end of the day.

But when he said no, they were forced to think of other ideas.

My dad said, “I don’t have any cash on me, you’re going to have to find a way to get your own gas.”

So somehow we got the idea to siphon the gas out of the car. We were super motivated to get these new cleats.

We didn’t tell my dad that we had this idea though, and we never gave him any money from what we made that day.

It didn’t take their dad long to figure it out, though.

The next morning, we were rudely woken up by my dad at 5 a.m., thinking that we stole the car in the middle of the night. He had a half tank of gas, and now he had nothing.

So we had to explain that we didn’t steal the car—we stole the gas.

Now it was time for them to pay.

He was still mad about that, but I think he was relieved we weren’t joyriding in the middle of the night.

He also made us pay for a tank of gas, which probably would’ve been $25–30 back then. He let us keep the rest of the money though!

What a rollercoaster ride!

What did Reddit have to say?

Turns out kids can be pretty desperate when it comes to earning that sweet pocket cash.

Are the kids really going to take the right lessons away from this?

This user thinks it’s a good learning experience to go around.

They got their cleats, but not without a lesson in cause and effect.

Next time, maybe they’ll think twice before turning their dad’s gas tank into a piggy bank.

If you liked that post, check out this story about a customer who insists that their credit card works, and finds out that isn’t the case.