man says he thought nothing wrong with using fire hydrant to fill a giant tanker with water

[Demovictory9]

Days after investigators asked for the public's help finding an alleged water thief in Appomattox County, the case has become even stranger now that the culprit has come forward.

The man is responsible for hooking up a tanker to a fire hydrant and filling it with water, a major with the Appomattox County Sheriff's Office said in an interview Wednesday, but the man said he didn't think he was doing anything wrong.

"What we have uncovered through this investigation is it happens a lot this time of year," Major Robby Richardson said. "People are filling pools and things of that nature up. And we have also heard people use it for spraying crops."



The taking of the water happened April 11 in Pamplin, the Sheriff's Office said. But when the Sheriff's Office posted a picture of the tanker on Facebook asking for the public's help, the man responsible came forward and said he didn't realize he did anything wrong by taking water in such a manner, Richardson said.

However, the mayor of Pamplin, which had 138 people as of the most recent Census survey, does not believe the man had a right to take a tanker full of water, according to Richardson.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/man-investigated-for-taking-water-didn-t-think-he-did-wrong-sheriff-s-major/ar-AAWq9nB

[Emile]

1. Sounds like a Trump excuse.

Truck driver has had a good teacher on how to steal and get away with it!

[canetoad]

2. Someone is paying him

To transport that water. Nice profits if the load is free.

[brewens]

3. I worked for a hydroseeding company and was out with the owner on a job one day and

we stole water in Orofino, ID. A couple of their city guys caught us, and he was gonna be in trouble, but I smelled booze on one of the guys! Problem solved. The drunk wanted to keep his job as it turned out.

[obamanut2012]

6. I do not understand why you think this deserves a smilie face

I think this is awful.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

4. In some circumstances, this is permitted. Probably not on this scale, though.

Last edited Fri Apr 22, 2022, 09:10 AM - Edit history (3)

I live in Alexandria, Virginia. A few years ago, I saw a crew with a lawn service from suburban Maryland filling up their truck at a fire hydrant in Alexandria. I made a note of the Maryland license plate. I didn't have a smartphone at the time, so I didn't get a picture.

The city has an online form where you can make reports of broken traffic lights, downed powerlines, and so forth, so I filed a report there. Someone from the fire department wrote back. He said that some lawn services were permitted to fill up their trucks at city fire hydrants. They had permits from the city to do that, and they had to meter the amount of water they had taken. They paid for the water they took.

This made sense. How else are they going to fill up? They pay for what they have taken, so there's no problem.

The lawn service I had seen doing this was not one of the services that had a permit. They were stealing water from the city. The person from the fire department who emailed me said he would be getting in touch with the errant lawn service.

So sometimes when you see a lawn service filling up at a hydrant, it's not a problem. They will be glad to show you their metering device. Or take a picture and send it in to your city or county.

[SharonClark]

5. Good to know.

Thanks for that helpful information.

[ripcord]

7. We have this problem regularly

Illegal pot farmers in the desert fill up tankers from hydrants and even wells on private property, no meters and no backflow devices so they are contaminating the ground water.