Thief steals 10 household water meters in downtown Udon Thani in single night

By The Nation

 

 

A lone thief removed 14 tap-water meters in Udon Thani’s Mueang district on Sunday night before fleeing the area by motorcycle with 10 of them, police said on Monday.
 

Officers at Mueang Udon Thani police station said they had received complaints from 14 households in the downtown area that their water meters had been stolen, although four of them were found to have been removed but not taken away.

 

Pol Captain Banchong Patro, deputy inspector at the police station, said CCTV footage showed one person – a motorcycle rider – going from house to house to steal the meters.

 

The footage showed that the thief had been able to remove a water meter in just one minute with his bare hands, he said.

 

Banchong added that police had recently received complaints from 136 households in Mueang and nearby districts that their water meters had been stolen.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/breakingnews/30321651

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2017-7-24

What on earth will this criminal do with water meters?

 

Are the meters not individually numbered (let's dream a bit), and can thus be traced if resold?

 

Or is it just another stupid prankster?

4 minutes ago, observer90210 said:

What on earth will this criminal do with water meters?

 

Scrap!

 

 

3 minutes ago, observer90210 said:

What on earth will this criminal do with water meters?

Happened to me either, they are for the brass parts inside the meters. Now I got a full-plastics one (all in all it took me 800 THB).

he was really busy that night. 14 water meters!!!

It is for the brass. Common occurrences in Ubon many years ago. Happened to most on our lane. 

 

I went to the Ubon head of police to complain about this. What I said is that these thieves steal the brass because there is an outlet, a receiver, for these brass parts.

 

The police found the shop receiving brass in Warin.

 

All meter thieves’ stopped very soon after that. At least in our area.

Sounds like a nasty blow to the hydraulics

so was there water running all over the street? 

5 hours ago, observer90210 said:

What on earth will this criminal do with water meters?

 

Are the meters not individually numbered (let's dream a bit), and can thus be traced if resold?

 

Or is it just another stupid prankster?

We had our meter stolen a while ago. Chopped straight through the plastic pipe. Police said that the local yabba heads swap them for a pill.

2 hours ago, fakename said:

so was there water running all over the street? 

I guess they close the valves either side of the meters before removing them - maybe not.

3 hours ago, chickenslegs said:

I guess they close the valves either side of the meters before removing them - maybe not.

Shutoff valves??? We don't install no stinking shutoff off valves! That makes too much sense.

Mine has shutoff valves on both sides.

I always shut off the water when I go away. Don't want any surprises when I return home from a vacation.