MARICOPA, AZ — After a scare at the gas pump, one Valley mom says she's now fearful of filling her tank again.
Monday night, Jonique Bridges says she stopped for gas at a Circle K off Porter and Honeycutt Road in Maricopa, on her way to pick up her two oldest daughters from a sleepover, when she noticed something was off.
"I see the hose from the top is disconnected and there’s gas literally spouting out all over my car, all over me, and all over the ground," she said.
Worried the heat and flammable gas could cause a reaction, she quickly pulled her two-year-old from the car seat and ran inside.
“I was just like, 'my baby, my baby!'" she added. "She’s gonna blow up, and I’m outside the car! I've got to get her out of the car!"
Bridges says she alerted employees, who shut off the fuel pumps, but admitted there wasn't a manager on duty to help fix the issue or answer her questions.
“I felt unsafe, like what if we would’ve died?" she said, "What if there was an explosion?”
An employee told Bridges they were authorized to reimburse her for the gas charged to her card, as well as offer a free car wash and dry cleaning to remove the gasoline from her car and clothes.
It wasn't until the next day that Bridges received a call from the store's manager.
“[She] said someone took off with the pump in their vehicle," added Bridges. "She said that they had put a yellow bag over it so that people would know it was out of service.”
But when Bridges pulled up, the pump didn't have a bag or sign on it warning customers of the damage caused, or to use another pump.
Bridges says the manager went on to say that when fuel trucks arrived just minutes earlier and refueled, an employee, unaware of the previous incident, removed bags from all pumps.
“You put my life in danger, you put my two-year-old‘s life in danger," said Bridges "This could’ve went wrong in so many different ways and they need to have a consequence, a huge cost for them to remember this.”
We reached out to Circle K for comment, a spokesperson sent us this statement:
"Circle K has been notified of an incident regarding one of the fueling locations at our store located at 41433 West Honeycutt Road, Maricopa last evening. Please know that a report has been completed and sent to our risk management department for investigation and resolution."
If you see a problem with a gas pump, you can file a complaint with the Arizona Weights and Measures department, responsible for inspecting the quality of gas pumps in the state on their website.
