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Ephrata police are asking the public for tips about who stole a fire hydrant like this one Saturday night.

Ephrata police are asking the public for tips about who stole a fire hydrant like this one Saturday night.

Who would steal a fire hydrant?

Ephrata police are trying to figure that out after a hydrant disappeared following a vehicle crash at King and South State streets in the borough Saturday night.

Thieves have taken the cast-iron hydrants to sell as scrap metal in some parts of the country in recent years, but “I don’t remember one being stolen here in my 12 years here,” said Ephrata police Sgt. Matthew Randolph. It is only worth about $20 as scrap metal.

If the hydrant is not found, the borough will have to pay $1,800 to replace it, said Paul Swangren, the borough’s superintendent of public works and water.

“I can’t imagine why someone would take one, maybe a couple kids trying to prove they could pick it up,” guessed Tom Natarian, director of operations for Ephrata Borough.

Lifting a hydrant is no small feat. It can weigh between 100 and 150 pounds, Swangren said.

“A big guy could probably lift it up, but it is not the kind of thing you can put over your shoulder and walk down the street with,” he said.

The other curious thing about the theft is how quickly the hydrant was stolen. Police said it happened in just minutes.

Christian Scott, 20, of the 200 block of West Burkholder Drive in Lititz, was distracted by a call on his cellphone, police said. His sport utility vehicle at 10:20 p.m. crashed into the hydrant, breaking it from its base. It happened about two blocks south of the Ephrata Pioneer Fire Station.

Scott was not injured, Randolph said. He drove around the block and called police to report the wreck. He may have felt it unsafe to stop where the SUV struck the hydrant because it is at the crest of a hill.

Scott told police when he returned to the hydrant's location about three minutes later, it was already gone.

Police have not filed any charges against Scott, Randolph said.

Water did not shoot out from the broken hydrant because valves of hydrants in this part of the country are underground so they don’t freeze, Randolph said.

The borough has to put hydrants back on their bases once in a while when vehicles strike them, Swangren said. They are designed to break away. A $200 repair kit is all that is required to get it back in service.

But without the hydrant, the borough would have to buy a new one, which includes the underground stem, Swangren said. “We’re still hoping we find this thing,” he said.

The hydrant has a blue base and white caps. Police ask anyone with information about its location to call them at 738-9200.

Tipsters also may call Lancaster City/County Crime Stoppers at (800) 322-1913 or anonymously text LANCS plus your message to 847411 (TIP411).

The missing hydrant does not pose a significant safety hazard because other hydrants are nearby, Ephrata Pioneer Fire Company Chief Allen Pettyjohn said. Hydrants are 750 feet apart in the borough and fire engines carry 1,000 feet of hose.

Pettyjohn did not have a theory why someone would want a hydrant but said he has seen old ones used as yard decorations.

Randolph said perhaps a young person stole the hydrant to put in their room, like they do sometimes with street signs.

“It would take some work to take one off, but if they walked by and saw one laying there, maybe,” he said.

Thieves have targeted fire hydrants or parts of hydrants in some parts of the country. Two noteworthy thefts were in California.

Five people were arrested near San Diego when they tried to sell more than 80 brass hydrant caps to a recycler in 2011, according to an NBC 7 online report. They previously sold 250 of the caps.

The following year, the Redlands Police Department near Los Angeles reported 16 fire hydrants valued at about $40,000 were stolen, according to the Los Angeles Times.

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