I challenge anyone to top this 911 scanner report

[Siwsan]

SUSPICIOUS - N/B Camden from Bristol approaching Hemphill - Officer was flagged down about 2 elderly W/M's pushing a shopping cart with a fire hydrant in it.

Yea, suspicious is a good classification!

[Angry Dragon]

1. recycling

[Siwsan]

2. Hopefully!

Those must be some pretty robust senior citizens!

[jberryhill]

3. They were on their way to fight a fire?

[Siwsan]

5. I'm still trying to picture how they got it into the cart!

Or even detached it, in the first place. Maybe I don't understand quite how a fire hydrant works, but I'd expect a substantial GEYSER of water appears, when the hydrant is removed from the water main.

[jberryhill]

6. That's only in the movies

This is what happens if you unbolt a fire hydrant:



http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HydrantGeyser

Any location subject to cold temperatures must employ dry barrel hydrants to avoid problems with burst pipes. This combined with the protection against the very calamity that the Hydrant Geyser portrays is why dry barrel hydrants make up the overwhelming majority of installed units in North America. Of course with wet barrel units being acceptable in warm locations such as Southern California, that design makes up the majority seen in media, hence the popularity of the trope.

This trope is constantly hovering on the border of becoming discredited or even a dead horse with spoofs and parodies making up a large number of examples, however it is frequently played straight both in media and Real Life. Like the exploding car, this trope maintains a strong grip on the popular psyche causing people to be genuinely surprised when hydrants are knocked over with little fanfare.

[Siwsan]

7. Well, that explains the 'stealth' aspect of the removal!

[TheCowsCameHome]

4. They're stealing a shopping cat.

The hydrant is just a ruse.

Gotcha!

[Siwsan]

8. HAHA!!!

Can't believe I didn't figure that out!!

[left-of-center2012]

9. A gift for their dog?

[Nac Mac Feegle]

10. The valve is actually way down in the ground

There is a long rod going from the "bolt" on the top. The exposed part is the top of a pipe running down to the water supply line, where the valve actually is.

Although, if the exposed hydrant is hit "right", and the valve is damaged, the results can be .....interesting.....

I was 'privileged' to see what happened when a bus cut a turn too tight, and broke a hydrant and the buried valve. It was rather spectacular. 30 foot column of water straight up, cops, fire department, city workers and engineers all over the place. And one seven year-old boy completely overawed. (My son)

It sort of made his YEAR.

He has a 3 foot piece of POLICE LINE tape as a treasured souvenir of that night.