Gas discount creates mile-long line

CLINTON, Mich., May 5 (UPI) -- A chance to buy gas at 50 cents off per gallon in the Detroit suburbs had drivers lined up for miles.

The temporary discount to $2.35 a gallon for self-serve unleaded regular was arranged by Macomb County Prosecutor Eric Smith, the Detroit News reported Friday. He plans more gas sales to use $35,000 in restitution money paid by two brothers who were caught shorting customers at their gas station.

On Thursday, drivers waited in line for as long as two hours outside a Marathon station in Clinton. An estimated thousand drivers hit the pumps.

"It's not really about the money," Tracy Lawrence of Clinton told the News, saying that she believes many gas stations are illegally price gouging.

The lines angered other local business owners who said that cars waiting in the gas line blocked their customers.

"We've had probably four customers come in all day," said Thomas Yon, who operates a dry cleaning business with his father down the street from the gas station.

Smith said that the next sale he arranges will probably be split between three or four gas stations to reduce the waiting time.