ROME - A Rome Sunoco is blaming the city's Police Department for several recent unresolved "drive-offs."

While numbers countywide are similar to figures from recent years, some say the cost is adding up as the price for gasoline goes-up.

Incident's like this one that took place in Whitestown nearly 2 years ago have happened 6 times in the past two months at this Sunoco in Rome.

"Someone constantly has to be at the window to watch," said James Russel, gas station manager at the Rome Sunoco.

On Saturday, the driver of this car allegedly left without paying and like others was caught by a surveillance camera. According to managers, incidents like this cost the gas station about $600 per year, and lately they say the police have done little to help catch gas thieves.

"Sometimes when we have drive-offs, the officers come here, they run the car and they go right to the house where it's coming up and they come back and pay, but the thing is, some don't get addressed the way they should get addressed," Russel said.

Rome Public Safety Commissioner Jim Masucci says there are a lot of factors that gas stations don't always take into account.

"Sometimes it's somebody else's car, somebody is driving somebody else's car, somebody else driving someone else's car, that would be hard to make an arrest," Masucci said.

A lot of gas stations require that customers pre-pay, but managers here say their parent company will not allow it - seeing the pre-pay system as an inconvenience.

Masucci feels that could help deter some theft, but police need to follow up on each incident.

"If it happens, they should go back to gas stations to tell them we can't get anywhere with this because you either gave us the wrong plate number, the plate's were switched or the wrong address is coming up on the plate," Masucci said.

As we get closer to the summer driving season, and drive-offs become more prevalent, managers are concerned that they will lose even more money in the coming months.