what do do about utility theft?

Question

I have a spigot on the outside of my building, and the residents of the building next door keep stealing my water, despite having access to a spigot of their own. I have come up to the building multiple times to find then with a hose attached to my spigot. I bought a $20 spigot lock and thought that had fixed the issue, but when I pulled up yesterday the lock was gone and there was another hose attached. O can't figure out how the lock was removed.

Jimmy Chao · Answer

I decided to take their hose and the sprayer they left LOL. I also installed a shutoff on the inside.

JD Martin · Answer

This is what I would do, sans the cutting the hose end and stabbing it as that's too much work and also encourages someone to just leave it running with water leaking everywhere as retribution. $3 worth of water usually won't account for $20 worth of hose, so if they leave it attached you take it with you and that's the end of that. Once you have 3 or 4 hoses, kept or tossed in the trash, either you won't know it's being done or someone will ask for their hose back.

But ultimately, you need a better valve lock setup or just remove the spigot altogether.

John Warren · Answer

@Jimmy Chao on rental properties I typically disable the exterior hose bib completely as part of my standard operating procedure. This may sound harsh, but really what are the tenants going to use the water for? Washing their cars? They can go to a car wash. Slip and slide? Go to the local splash pad. There just isn't a good reason to offer this amenity and tenants will often abuse this.

John Nachtigall · Answer

Not a single reply where you ask them to stop? Ok, I will be weird.    Go over to the neighbor and talk to them.  Tell them in a pleasant tone that you have noticed they are using your spigot and ask if there is something wrong with theirs.   Don't be confrontational, be neighborly.  Then if it continues you can have it removed, or locked, or call the police or whatever.  But the shortest distance to solving this problem is to ask them to stop.

Greg M. · Answer

First, replace the faucet lock with a better one. Most big box locks only have a handful of different keyings.

Second, if I need a hose I take it. If I don't, I cut the faucet end of the hose off and stab the hose every 10 feet or so.

If someone is dumb enough to ask about the hose, thank them for coming forward and let them know the police were looking for a name to add to the police report you filed.

Kyle J. · Answer

@Jimmy Chao A couple simple solutions...

#1 - If you don’t need the spigot, just remove it and cap it off.

#2 - If you do want to keep the spigot, use a different type of spigot lock. I’m just guessing the one that was cut off was the type that used a padlock, which can be easily removed with bolt cutters. However, they make one that doesn’t utilize a padlock and would be harder to remove:

Adam Martin · Answer

You could always install a no trespassing sign with a security camera and have them arrested for trespassing and theft.  This is a pretty bold move on their part as water bills can add up quickly and something I would not tolerate.  This would also help you catch if your tenants were part of it and were allowing it to happen.  Do you live here as well or do you just see it when checking on the property?

Karen F. · Answer

Remove the outside spigot.

Angelo Forzano · Answer

@Adam Martin. Hi. we had a shady neighbor down in the tourist area of New Jersey where the houses were vacant usually all week and then in the winter . this guy was running an extension cord to his neighbor's house pretty regularly finally the neighbor caught him and called the police. The police arrested him for theft of services.  Same as stealing your lawn furniture

Isaac Pepper · Answer

@Jimmy Chao depending on the style lock they most likely used bolt cutters to remove it.

Check out the plumbing line that feeds the spigot. If you have easy access to the line, so would you tenants (ex. basement). You could put a valve in the line where it would need turned on from the inside of the structure before you could use it outside. However this would not work if you allowed your tenants use of the spigot and you installed the valve in a small, dirty, dark crawlspace. It would also not work if you installed the valve where it would end supply to something else (ex. washing machine).

what do do about utility theft?

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