Some heroes don’t wear capes.
At least, that was the situation in the eyes of lucky California motorists who chanced into a reprieve from crushing gas prices under President Joe Biden.
The manager of a Sacramento County gas station programmed the pumps to sell premium gasoline for 69 cents a gallon on Thursday.
John Susina didn’t realize that he had placed a decimal point in the wrong place when programming the pump, according to WRAL. As such, the gas sold for less than a dollar instead of its real intended price of $6.99.
Yes, that price isn’t the mistake: The gasoline was actually intended to sell for almost seven dollars a gallon.
Susina lost his job on Monday for the costly error.
“It was a mistake,” said the manager in an explanation.
“And I thought, this is a nightmare.”
The pumps were only misprogrammed for three hours, but the mistake cost the business $16,000.
Locals flocked to the Shell gas station to buy premium gas at a price they might have expected to pay when Jimmy Carter was president, according to KOVR.
One local described taking advantage of the mistake to the maximum extent possible.
“I thought it was too good to be true until I checked the gas meter in the car and it was full but I only spent 14 dollars,” Daryl Surita told Newsweek.
“I filled my car up, left, came back with a second car, filled it up, then left again and came back with my cousin and filled up 150 gallons of a 500 gallon tank. The whole gas station was filled with cars and people with extra gas cans.”
Susina’s family has started a GoFundMe after his firing, fearing a potential legal battle with his former employer for the costly mistake.
Individual gas stations have little say in the cost of gas prices.
The exorbitant costs dumped on American commuters have more to do with President Joe Biden’s dismantling of Donald Trump’s pro-energy independence policies, such as approving new drilling on federal lands and the Keystone XL pipeline.
California is host to the most severe gas prices in America, with Biden administration officials openly admitting they don’t anticipate delivering relief to the middle-class American who drives to work anytime soon.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.