You would think our British friends over at BP had enough bad press over that whole Gulf oil spill thing to get a handle on its image, particularly in the U.S. Nothing a few mil thrown at a good P.R. or “crisis management” firm can't cure, right?

Turns out a camera crew from ReelUrbanNews has caught a BP-run Arco station near Watts selling 87 octane, cigarettes and … frigging crack pipes. That's right, glass, coke-smoking instruments, according to the news site. And, oh yeah, these things are fairly illegal if you read California law with your good eye.

Not only that, but the station at South Main Street and Imperial Highway is practically next door to Gompers Middle School.


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The good folks at ReelUrban News are incensed because, they said, after informing BP and Arco of the crack-pipe situation at the station, they were assured that the items would be removed.

When a camera crew returned, they appeared to be back.

“You are selling drug paraphernalia,” a ReelUrbanNews rep is heard telling a gas station attendant. “It's illegal. It's a crack pipe.”

The crew states the station was selling “mini scales” too. You know, for your mini produce. And, reading the photos ReelUrbanNews provided us, it looks like the station was selling scouring pads of the type crackheads use with the pipes to smoke rock.

We're sure those are for the average gas consumer's everyday scrubbing needs. 'Cause last time we filled up we were headed home to a dirty sink.

Yeah. Otherwise legit medical marijuana dispensaries can't be within 1,000 feet of a school, but this place is allegedly selling rock-smoking glassware and other accessories in one of the areas hardest hit by the crack epidemic of the '80s and '90s.

The Louisiana shoreline wasn't enough? Way to sully our fair metropolis, BP.

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