Thieves

On Saturday afternoon we received a phone call from a concerned citizen. She told me that there was a man with a water tanker truck hooking up to the fire hydrant on the corner and stealing our water (5000 gallons at a time). She said that the man doing it had talked to her husband while he was doing it and stated that he had permission (interesting since we knew nothing about it). When he left for his construction site, the driver told them he would be back in a little bit for one more load. She called us as the man drove away. We dispatched engine 462 to investigate. Shockingly enough, the thief decided not to try to pilfer any more water when he saw a fire engine near the hydrant. Our engineer was smart enough to get a license plate number, company name, and address before he could drive off. Now the San Bernardino Sheriff's department. Unfortunately they will probably only get off with a warning.