It’s not only air conditioners that thieves have been targeting to sell parts for quick cash. They’ve also been stealing plumbing fixtures.
Friday morning, metal valves were taken from the pipes outside the National Church of God in Fort Lauderdale, 977 NW 17th Ave., creating a watery mess until the flow could be turned off.
“There was plumbing stolen, leaving a half-inch pipe disconnected,” said Matt Little, a spokesman for Fort Lauderdale Fire-Rescue. “There was flooding but the flooding was in the grass so it didn’t do any damage.”
Friday’s was the most recent in a rash of plumbing-parts thefts in Broward and Palm Beach counties.
On May 25, a backflow preventer was stolen from an industrial area in Davie, causing water to gush across roads and parking lots of the warehouses just west of State Road 7.
Also in May, two suspects were arrested in Oakland Park after deputies confiscated an ax and 26 backflow valves from a vehicle. And an Oakland Park city employee was arrested on charges of stealing more than $17,000 worth of water meters and brass fittings from a city storage facility.
Similar thefts have also taken place in North Lauderdale, Pompano Beach, Tamarac, Wilton Manors and Boca Raton.
By Danielle A. Alvarez, Sun Sentinel
