DULUTH, Minn. - Fluctuating pump prices have not limited drive-offs, and a new Minnesota law gives retailers more tools to fight those thefts, WDIO-TV reports. Yesterday, a law promoted by the Minnesota Petroleum Marketers Association (MPMA) went into effect.

Basically, the law gives gasoline stations the ability to hire associations like MPMA to help them get paid for the drive-offs. The law also gives a judge and jury to infer that someone who did a drive-off intended to not pay for the fuel.

"Just because someone left for station without paying for gas, we couldn??t make an inference that they were intending to take it," said Mary Asmus, Duluth??s assistant city attorney. "I think we're getting more and more cases as the economy has worsened, we've seen the number of gas drive-off cases increase last couple of years."

The new law will help smaller stations get their money back. "And that helps small gas stations that aren't affiliated with chains to be able to have the resources to actually do something about it," said Asmus.