A Fountain of Gas

So the other day I was getting some gas and talking on the phone (yes I love to multitask) and I wasn't paying much attention to the gas (it usually does its own thing). Then all of a sudden I see gas spewing out of my gas tank like a raging fountain. So I run over and pull down the stop thingy but the gas just keeps spewing all over the place. My care was literally taking a shower in gasoline.  It was late at night so nobody else is at the gas station so I run frantically into the store part and start yelling....gas spewing....gas all over the place...shut off the gas... and I notice that there is a little old lady attendant who didn't even flinch at my yelling or the fact that I wasn't making much sense.

At this point I run back outside and to my relief the gas has ceased spewing and not instead of showering in gas my car is simply taking a bath in a lake of gasoline.  this guy (who literally appears out of nowhere (and there is no other car around) tells me to slowly back my car up. So I repark and get the receipt for gas. 

The mystery guy and I walk inside and I tell the little old the happenings. She asks me about how much gas I think is outside on the ground. I look at my receipt and tell her 7 gallons. She asks me why I think that much and tell her that my gas tank holds about 10 gallons and my receipt has me charged for 17 gallons. Mystery guys pipes in and tells me my Toyota Corolla (which I have named Bella) can hold 12.75 or something gallons and it only looks like there is about 3 1/2 gallons of gas on the ground! (I am annoyed by mystery man at this point--how does he know either of that information--I'm pretty sure I could never get 12 gallons of gas in my car and I'm also pretty sure by the lake of gas that there's more than 3 1/2 gallons of gas out on the ground.

Mystery man does redeem himself however when he helps little old lady attendant figure out how to reimburse me for the 7 gallons of gas not in my tank but outside on the ground.  So in the end I didn't have to pay for said lake of gas.

However I'm pretty sure that any good I have done in the entirety of my 28 years to help the planet (namely recycle etc.) was undone by the 7 gallons of gas that spewed forth from Bella!  yikes!