Luftin, TX: In a story broken by ABC Channel 9 KTRE, two men and one woman have been arrested in the theft of backflow preventers. In a series of fortunate events, police happened to be in the right place at the right time. This all began with a witness who saw the three criminals detaching a backflow preventer from outside the Walgreens at the corner of North Timberland Drive and East Lufkin Avenue.

The witness jotted down the license plate number of the Mitsubishi the three took off in. Just then a Lufkin Police detective was driving by the scene, flagged down by the witness. Backup was called in along with a vehicle description and tag number. This led to the vehicle being pulled over, searched and the discovery of two backflow preventers. One was from Walgreens and the other came from Chen’s Restaurant near the Lufkin Mall. You can read the complete story on the Channel 9 website.

Anyone who has dealt with backflows knows why thieves target them, it is to sell the metal they’re made of to scrap dealers. With the price of these metals on the rise, many old-fashioned backflow preventers have become targets. That’s why many business owners and building managers are switching to composite backflow units which contain none of the metals crooks are after.

In a recent bulletin, the Peoria, AZ Police Department listed several ways to prevent backflow theft. The number one recommended item, and the most cost effective, was to replace a standard, brass backflow with the newly approved A.R.I. composite backflow preventer. “Try using the recently approved A.R.I. RP-500 Plastic Backflow Preventer. These devices range in sizes from ¾” – 2”. They are considered less valuable due to the minimal amount of brass contained on the device.” – said the article. You can read the full release here: Peoria, AZ Police Recommends A.R.I. Backflows