HOUSTON – Thieves are accused of repeatedly targeting Kingwood businesses, stealing backflow preventers and leaving property owners with flooded parking lots, broken pipes and repair bills in the thousands.
Surveillance cameras caught the latest theft at a strip center filled with healthcare businesses on Kingwood Executive Drive overnight. Surveillance footage shows a woman and a man in a hoodie approaching the property. The man uses a hammer to break through a protective cage and destroy the equipment before taking off with the backflow preventer, leaving water gushing across the parking lot.
Property manager Lyn Rathgeber says the water ran uncontrolled for seven hours before it could be shut off…