An Ohio Sunoco did not charge $9.99 for regular gas; an employee said the unusual display appeared because the station’s tank was empty.
Photos posted Saturday showed the Gibsonburg station advertising regular gasoline at $9.99 and diesel at $6.89, Newsweek reported.
A station employee offered a simpler explanation Sunday. The regular-gas tank was empty, the employee said, so the displayed figure was not an actual sale price.
The images spread quickly after Ohio lawyer and political commentator Tom Renz posted them on X. Radio host Alex Jones shared the pictures, and the original post topped 770,000 views by Sunday.
The distinction matters because fuel costs were already rising. AAA listed the national average at $4.48 Sunday, while Ohio’s average stood at $4.53.
Prices around the station offered more evidence that motorists were not paying nearly $10 per gallon. GasBuddy listed regular gas at $4.57 in nearby Genoa and $4.89 in Elmore on Saturday.
Google Maps also listed the Sunoco station’s 24-hour average at $4.50 for regular gas Sunday morning. Premium averaged $5.30, while diesel averaged $6.90.
Those numbers tracked the photographed diesel display. But they placed regular gas less than half the amount shown on the sign.
Renz said the photos came from a station near the Ohio Turnpike exit by Elmore. After questions arose about the display, Renz wrote:
“These pics are real and I don’t care why. If it is because the gas station was out of gas, why is that happening? I drive by that station all the time, I’ve never seen that before.”
That leaves a fair question unanswered. The employee explained why the sign showed $9.99, but no cause was given for the empty tank.
It also remains unclear which tank was empty, how long the display remained visible, or whether customers could buy any regular gasoline at the time.
The Ohio episode was not the first time a fuel sign displayed that amount after supplies ran out. Newsweek cited similar reports following the 2021 Colonial Pipeline hack, which disrupted fuel supplies across much of the East Coast.
GasBuddy petroleum analyst Patrick De Haan said he contacted stations after reports that California signs were showing diesel at $9.99. He told Straight Arrow:
“The stations did say their sign said $9.99, but they had done that because they had run out of diesel.”
The account also noted that some fuel displays have a three-digit limit. That can make $9.99 the highest figure a sign can show, though the exact mechanics at the Ohio station remain unresolved.
None of this erases the genuine rise in fuel costs. Ohio’s average had climbed from $2.76 before February 28 to $4.53 Sunday, a 64 percent increase.
But a real price increase does not turn an out-of-stock display into a $9.99 sale price. Public debate works better when costly facts and viral misunderstandings are kept separate.
Americans deserve straight answers about both fuel prices and empty tanks. Clear facts serve them better than a frightening number stripped of context.
