WAR veteran and former PoW Bob Westwood is fuming after thieves drained his car petrol tank by cutting through the pipe to the engine.
"I found out when the car stopped after I had only driven a short way down the road," said Bob, 81, of Sling, near Coleford.
"I knew I had only put some petrol in the day before. My son in law came out with a can and put more petrol in but I still couldn't get going. Then we found the pipe had been cut through.
"There had just been enough in the carburettor to take me as far as I went – the tank was empty."
Bob said he had since heard there had been a spate of similar raids on cars in Sling and Coleford, and puts it down to the high price of fuel.
"I think there's a gang operating. With petrol at £4 a gallon it's worth their while now.
"I heard there were five or six pipes cut in this area in the last few days or so and it must be the same people doing it."
He said there was a darker side to the raids – in one case he'd heard about the thieves cut through the fluid pipes to the brakes, which would have been serious if the elderly owner had taken the vehicle on the road.
Bob served in the Navy in the last war – he was aboard Essex in the epic battle with the German pocket battleship Graf Spee – and was taken prisoner by the Japanese in Java, later known as the Dutch East Indies, and held for two and a half years.
He says the thefts are hitting pensioners particularly hard – bus services in the area are poor so old people need cars to get around, but they are finding it harder and harder with rising fuel costs.
He says he isn't sure quite who is behind the thefts but he believes it is youngsters, and says after looking back he is particularly suspicious of a small white car that has been seen parked around the Sling area.