5 houses, 2 in Sector Creston and 3 in Villas de San Carlos were robbed last night of copper tubing and water meters. The meters are stolen for their metal content since they are made out of bronze and can be sold for scrap metal. With summer on the horizon and many American residents preparing to go north to cooler climes it might not be a bad idea to think about trying to protect your water meter from walking away from you. Summer time tends to be the time most houses in San Carlos fall prey to robbery. Remember that the water meter is property of the home owner and thus the home owners responsibility to protect. If it is stolen you the home owner are responsible for replacing it. This was the case of the home I visited this morning. A neighbor was simply replacing the out of town home owners meter with PVC tubing, which is acceptable as a quick fix, but I was told by Enrique from the water company (CEA) that you must eventually have a meter installed. You can purchase the meter directly from CEA for a cost of 650 pesos or you can purchase a meter from any of the local hardware stores. Or you can just not purchase a meter and see how long you can go with the PVC tubing. The robberies were reported sometime this morning. The comisaria refused to comment on any of this to us so it is anyone’s guess when the meters were taken and for how long water was leaking into the streets.