Over Saturday night, metal thieves attached a rope to metal fittings belonging to Spanaway Water Company, a local water mutual owned by local ratepayers. They literally pulled the fittings off the pipes with their car and drove off with them, leaving water spewing around the shopping center at 159th and Pacific Ave. in Spanaway.

Driving by Monday morning, the Post spotted the Spanaway Water trucks, Elmhurst Power and Sheriff’s Deputy vehicles in the back of Rite Aid.

The asphalt  around the plastic pipe cover was wet. The water company had placed caps on the system to stop the leakage and the power company was there to stop and start the power to the system.

Water company manager Jeff Johnson, showed one of the pipes the thieves didn’t quite get away with. The metal thieves are getting very bold in the area, taking pipes, wiring and other public works structures. Both the water company manager and the Elmhurst repairman said the area around Pacific Avenue, particularly two block either side, has been rife with this kind of problem the past couple years.

Johnson said the fitting had possibly twenty dollars worth of metal, but it will cost the company and rate payers almost $500 to fix each of the three that were damaged.

If you spot these metal thieves in action, please report them. Our utility bills are high enough.