Two suspected water thieves to appear in court today

Staff report

CAMPBELL

The two men accused of stealing city water from a Wilson Avenue fire hydrant will appear in Campbell Municipal Court at 9 a.m. today .

Phillip G. Stratus, 26, of Oxford Avenue in Niles, and Leonard W. Villers, 58, of Stanford Avenue in Youngstown, are each charged with theft and with tampering with the city water system. Each was being held on a $2,500 bond in the Campbell jail pending their mandatory court appearance.

Shortly before 2:30 p.m. Saturday, city police spotted a black water tanker truck emblazoned with the name “Odyssey Environmental Services LLC,” near Wilson Avenue and 10th Street, along with a man — Villers — crouching down beside a fire hydrant. Officers also observed a hose attached to the hydrant and running to the top of the truck, where Stratus was watching “the progress of the water flow inside,” a police report said.

The men told police they were cleaning catch basins for the city and had permission to take as much water as they needed, but could not provide a work order. Villers said, too, that he’d “done this several times before,” but did not know where the water was being taken or what it was being used for. No water meter was attached to the fire hydrant to measure the amount of water being transferred.

City officials contacted by police said they did not have any knowledge of the company’s being permitted to take water from city fire hydrants.