Could my mother in law hook up a line to my houses city water supply to fill her well, (because it's getting low) with out making it obvious. Like if the water was transferred via a timer that was set to run say at 3am when we were sleeping. I've been doing some investigating on my own and found that my water meter is increasing when we aren't using the amount on the meter. Also I open the box she had built around the well and saw 3 pvc pipes coming into the pump room and only the one going out to her house.

Please help!!

There is a meter on your water line... they know you are using it and how much you are using. Doesn't matter what time you do it.

If you are looking at theft... the fines are EXTREMELY high for utility theft.

Smoothy,
I think apriveteye2b is talking about mother-in-law steeling water from his/her house. Apparently by looking at MIL's pump facility.

I also don't think apriveteeye2b is ever going to get a license as a private detective.

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Originally Posted by hkstroud

Smoothy,
I think apriveteye2b is talking about mother-in-law steeling water from his/her house. Apparently by looking at MIL's pump facility.

I also don't think apriveteeye2b is ever going to get a license as a private detective.

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Ah... I think I see what you are saying now... I hope he clarifies this.

THis would have to have been done a LONG time ago (at least before they moved in) or he would have noticed the ground disturbance.

I've actually dealt with a situation where something similar was happening, not water, but a neighbor that was tapped into our leachbed, they had none of their own, and it dated back to the date of construction. After the Utiltiy companies marked any underground utilities... we rented a ditchwitch and ran down the property line and found it, plugged it and it wasn't long before they had to dig up their back yard to put a leech bed in... just so you know... they were involved in both houses at time of construction so yeah they knew about it for years... we caught it when there was a wet area in the yard during an extended dry period when we got back from vacation and knew it wasn't OUR water doing it.

And a friend of mine years ago caught his landlord doing just that , taking water from his side of a duplex he was renting, the other side the landlord occupied (his system was plumbed into the rental sides system when they were supposed to be separate. This was after his water usage seemed excessive, and they caught the water meter running right when they knew they were using NO water. So yeah.. this does happen.

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could my mother in law hook up a line to my houses city water supply to fill her well, (

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Absolutely not!
Chapter 12, Section 1204 titled ":Croiss connections " of The Standard Plumbing Code strickenly forbids comingling public water with anything. If the water table's lowered call in a well company and lower the well point. Good luck, Tom

Before I would suspect the Mother-In-Law I would try a dye test at all toilet tanks... see if water is getting past the flapper. Here, you drop enough food coloring dye into each toilet tank and let it sit for a few hours. If colored water shows up in the toilet BOWL then you have definitely found an issue with the toilet flapper ortoilet flush valve assembly.

Look into that... let us know what you discover...

Mark

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Originally Posted by massplumber2008

Before I would suspect the Mother-In-Law I would try a dye test at all toilet tanks...see if water is getting past the flapper. Here, you drop enough food coloring dye into each toilet tank and let it sit for a few hours. If colored water shows up in the toilet BOWL then you have definitely found an issue with the toilet flapper ortoilet flush valve assembly.

Look into that...let us know what you discover...

Mark

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I'll second that. They can leak and you might never know it. Personal experiece there. I suspected one of mine of leaking but checked both... and the one I never suspected leaked worse than the one I did.