WATER IDIOT: A “STUPID” panic buyer was spotted emptying out water bottles and filling them with petrol while she held up a 30-minute queue of desperate drivers behind her, TheSun UK reports.
The daft driver was seen at the Shell garage in Cobham Services on the M25 – seemingly oblivious to the danger of using the wrong container.
The weekend frenzy reached fever pitch on Monday morning, as motorists continue to besiege filling stations after a weekend of chaos.
Drivers are facing huge queues at petrol station forecourts across the country as the petrol pump chaos caused by panic buying and a shortage of HGV drivers continues.
The woman is seen shamelessly emptying out a 1.5 litre plastic bottle before bending down to fill it up with fuel, before repeating the process with another.
Her forecourt faux pas was captured by baffled motorist Gavin Rabbitt, who called her hazardous life hack “ludicrous”.
“I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I thought ‘I can’t believe the stupidity of this woman’,” the dad-of-six said.
“This is the kind of thing that causes the problem. People filling up things they shouldn’t be filling up and no one else can get the fuel because of other people’s stupidity.
“The queue was all the way down the slip road. We were queuing for about 20 to 30 minutes,” he continued.
“She was all blasé and doing it right in front of me. It’s ludicrous.”
Gavin quickly moved away from the foolish driver as he feared her makeshift petrol ‘can’ could have been a fire risk – while others suggested the fuel could have been contaminated by the leftover water.
Under the law, drivers wishing to store petrol must use ‘robust’ containers that won’t degrade after coming into contact with petrol.
One horrified user commented: “That kind of plastic probably can’t even hold petrol, will likely dissolve the bottles.”
“Highly dangerous. What a daft cow,” another wrote.
It comes as “selfish” fuel grabbers have been slammed for exacerbating the crisis, that Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said had been “manufactured” by panic-buying.
Thieves have even unbelievably began drilling holes into parked cars to steal fuel as the shortages continue.
The continued chaos has forced the Prime Minister to consider emergency plans to deploy the army to drive fuel tankers to help deliver supplies.
Up to 90 per cent of all service stations outside of motorways are now dry as Brits raced to fill up their motors and the PM was urged to “act now” to avoid even worse chaos.
FIGHT FOR FUEL
Brawls have broken out on petrol station forecourts as frustrated drivers clashed while queuing at pumps – turning on each other in shocking scenes.
The emergency services also aren’t immune to the suffering – as yesterday it was revealed that cops were forced to jump a queue in order to get vital fuel.
As well as this, an ambulance rushing to attend a call in Bromley crashed into traffic as queues for petrol crippled the roads.
The fight for fuel has continued to spiral as motorists cram as much as they can into their tanks, jerry cans, and other containers.
Industry bosses fearing the fuel crisis could last at least another week.
One lorry driver hit out at one hoarder who he witnessed filling up several jerry cans with petrol and stacking them in his boot.
“FRUSTRATION”
The driver, who has not been named, told Gloucestershire Live, that he saw one man filling up jerry cans in the Shell garage in Eastington.
He said: “This is why we are low on fuel. They had to go in and pay for the first lot to then fill the jerry cans up! It’s really irritating.
