Proof that copper has great value...They should have invested in CUU instead... ;)
Thieves steal copper valves from Fort Myers plaza
By Meaghan Smith
Thieves hit a Fort Myers business plaza for the copper valvesthere. But it wasn't just water valves that were stolen. They also tooksomething that could have done some serious damage.
The thieves cut through a gas meter, the gas line, and then the plaza's water meters. And they did for the copper.
At least three stores in a plaza at Gladiolus and Winkler Road wereleft with no water. It was all discovered when one of the businesses - adry cleaners - was alerted to a gas leak.
"If the gas line would have sparked or fired, my shop would have beenrubble, dust," said Daniel Cichowicz, owner of a shipping store in thatplaza.
That leak was quickly shut off. But store owners soon discovered that their water meters had been cut too.
"So, we knew that we were hit again," said Cichowicz.
Less than a month ago, thieves ripped them off the exact same way.
Next door to Cichowicz, at the Coast Guard Exchange, Alan Weissman is feeling his pain.
"I said, ‘What's wrong with the bathrooms?' And they said, ‘The water meters had been stolen,'" Weissman described.
We learned that on the night of the theft, deputies caught threepeople behind the plaza next door with burglary tools, and a ripped openAC unit.
Right now, those three haven't been charged with this crime, but deputies believe they could be involved.
The water was eventually restored after crews worked all day to repair the meters.
https://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44010914/ns/local_news-fort_myers_fl/