PHARR (September 30, 2012)--Thieves in the South Texas cities of Pharr and Brownsville have been going after storm drain covers.
In Pharr, 35 inlet and storm drain covers have been stolen over the past week and in nearby Brownsville, officials reported 62 missing inlet covers and one manhole cover.
Grace Segovia, Pharr's environmental education coordinator, told the Monitor of McAllen that usually only one or two such covers are stolen a month.
Pharr is paying between $10,000 and $18,000 to replace the stolen covers.
Officials say the steel from the covers is often resold to local metal companies, but they haven't identified any that might have received metal from this rash of thefts.
The covers have been replaced quickly, but officials say the thefts represent a potential danger to drivers and to flood control.
