Starting about 3 or 4 months ago, we got a whole bunch of calls from various property managers saying that people had stolen their backflow devices. (What's a backflow device? Click here!) People were stealing them and then trying to "recycle" the brass at one of these scrap metal places. These things cost a lot of money (in many cases, more than $1,000.00) and, to steal them, they shut off the water to your building! And you can't turn it back on until you replace the device!
Then, they found one of the guys in Mission Viejo with hundreds (I think) of these devices in his house. I don't know what he was going to do with them. No way would a scrap metal yard take that many from one person.
There are all kinds of ways to minimize your risk of having one of these stolen, but the best is to install a cage around it. If you contact us, we can give you a bid. We would pour a concrete pad around your device, install some bolts in it and then put a metal cage over it. When we come to test it, we just unlock the cage and go to work. When we're done, we just put the cage back! A determined thief can still get to it, but most thieves don't want to put that much effort into it and will move on to easier pickings
Now, off the subject...
I put here in a previous post that I am a ballroom dancer (no, I am not nearly as good as the ones on Dancing With the Stars). I do it strictly for fun, some exercise and because my wife loves it. When I started, though, I had a real problem.
I have studied one martial art or another since 1983. Most of these require strict body positioning, positioning that usually looks nothing like any type of dance step. It was really funny watching me try to maintain my balance while trying to look good dancing!
Fortunately, due to the patience and perseverance of many dance instructors, I got past this. Now, I am a decent dancer and I don't look all stiff and awkward as I did when I started.
There are a lot of excellent dance instructors in and around Orange County. Just a few are Lisa Narita, Tom Hyatt and Louie Herrera. Check out these sites if you are interested in having fun, meeting people and getting some exercise!
