Sunoco

About this location

A few stories people tell about this place

1. At the Sunoco station in downtown Chicago, a regular asked one morning, ‘Why does that gas pump always seem to be talking?’ A delivery driver overheard and joked, ‘It’s not talking—you’re just filling up your head with too much talk radio!’ The regular laughed it off, but every now and then he’d still glance suspiciously at the nozzle when nobody was around.

2. At a quiet Sunoco gas station outside Pittsburgh, an old delivery driver noticed something odd one foggy morning. As he filled up his truck, he swore he saw a small, dusty teddy bear sitting on top of the fuel pump. The delivery driver picked it up and joked, ‘Who leaves a teddy bear here?’ Later that day, he found the same bear in front of his own house—turned out, his neighbor had accidentally left it there earlier. Since then, whenever someone sees the bear at Sunoco, they say, ‘Guess who forgot their cuddly friend again!’

3. At a sleepy Sunoco station on Route 66, a delivery driver muttered one night as he filled up his truck: ‘I swear I saw that same old pickup here last week.’ The next day, an old neighbor stopped in for gas and grinned: ‘Yep, it’s him again—same rusty truck, same old hat.’ The attendant shook his head with a smile, refueling both trucks without another word. As twilight fell, the two pickups pulled out together, leaving behind only the hum of tires on asphalt and whispers around the pump.

4. At dawn, when most Sunoco stations are empty, a delivery driver noticed a strange glow coming from behind the pumps. Curious, he approached and saw that it was just an old man, standing there with a flashlight, checking the underground tanks. Turns out, every morning at sunrise, the senior volunteer from next door came to do his own little maintenance ritual. Since then, locals joke that Sunoco’s real secret is its dedicated neighborhood watchman.