LEE COUNTY, Fla. -- Cracking down on credit card skimmers at gas stations, that's the goal of Lee County Commissioners. Tuesday, they unanimously approved a new law called the Fuel Pump Security Ordinance. It's designed to enforce gas station owners to put locks on pumps.
“If you don’t have your pumps locked up, you are going to need to spend the money get the gas pump secured so your customers can fill up with confidence knowing they won’t get ripped off,” said Commissioner Brian Hamman, Lee County.
The new law will go into effect starting July 1st, 2019. Gas station owners will face a 250 dollar fine if they don’t comply and it will be enforced by Lee County Sheriff's Office and Lee County Code Enforcement.
This comes on the heels of four skimmers found in pumps at a 7-11 in Gateway that potentially compromised customers information, but this has been a problem in Lee County for a while.
“More than 40 have been found in the last two years we need to get gas station owners to lock up their pumps and protect the public,” said Commissioner Hamman.
In 2017 and 2018 there were a total of 19 skimmers found at 7-11 gas stations, nine and Marathon, six at Mobil, and four at Sunoco.
Cape Coral has has a similar ordinance for about a year. One gas station owner Fox 4 spoke with says, “I feel safer and we also just got new pumps put in,” Chuck DeBono, Co-owner, Sunoco.
Collier and Charlotte counties, Village of Estero and Punta Gorda all have similar ordinances.
