Water Meter Thefts Are On the Rise in Argentina

This June will mark our 10-year-anniversary of living here in Cordoba, Argentina, and this country still manages to surprise us in a lot of ways.

We've dealt with the good and the bad (and most recently VERY BAD). Our friends and family back home think the situation here is insane when we tell them about what goes on around here. Like three weeks ago when I woke up to the sound of incessant knocking. Now usually, we avoid contact with the locals. This includes our neighbors because they're usually just trying to talk to us to get gossip about our lives. Sometimes, it's a beggar asking for $10 Argentine pesos in exchange for the cheapest trash bags in existence. We also get the occasional bible thumper (usually, it's a Jehovah's Witness), which we avoid like the plague. But generally, speaking, when something bad happens to our house, like our walls being vandalized or our house getting robbed, the neighbors are nowhere to be found.

So, our policy has been to avoid contact with them whenever possible, especially in light of the pandemic, which is not over, despite the locals acting like it is. But that day, they kept on knocking and knocking and it was driving me nuts. So, I finally decided to look through the window to see what was happening, and that's when I realized why they were knocking.

There was a ton of water gushing from the sidewalk outside of my house, and it was hemorrhaging onto the street. I had no idea what had happened, so I did what I usually do under these circumstances. I contacted the property owners, who happen to be my folks. To my surprise, they knew what was happening because one of my neighbors had rushed over to their house to tell them.

It turns out that someone had stolen our water meter. 

I couldn't believe it! People steal cars, purses, wallets and cellphones. They rob houses, too. But who wastes their time stealing a water meter from someone's house? Apparently, it's a lot more common than I thought.

I was able to get someone from the water department to come down and shut the valve off while they installed a new pipe. When I asked the technician if this happens often in Argentina, he claimed that it happens all the time. He added that it doesn't matter how rich or how poor the neighborhood is. Thieves go after the water meter and the pipes attached to them because they contain copper, which thieves can apparently sell for money (and possibly drugs).

The technician also warned me that thieves not only steal water meters but also the gas cables as well. Unfortunately, the water meter and the gas cables are in front of the house and easily accessible to thieves and vandals.

Now, I get that the Argentine economy is in the toilet (more so than it usually is). This drives some of the locals to take desperate actions to put food on their table. But stealing water meters from your neighbors? Come on! That's a new low!

Getting a Ticket in Argentina Can Cost You More Than You Bargained For

I've been driving since I was 16, and like most people, I've accrued a couple of tickets over the years. But that was all over for me when I moved from Florida to New York because I could rely on the subway system to get around. Not only was it cheaper but safer (for the most part, anyway). 

Then when I moved to Argentina in 2012, I stuck to my "no driving" policy. Granted, my dad had bought me a car, which he continues to insist is mine. But I've refused to get behind the wheel, except for one occasion when we took a trip to San Juan province. 

My dad is old, and he was too tired to drive, so I agreed to take over for a couple of hours. But the roads out here can be horrifying, even as a passenger in a cab or an Uber.

Argentine drivers don't care about staying in their lane. In fact, they tend to drive in between lanes more often than not. To make things worse, some drivers, particularly, motorcyclists, ignore red lights and stop signs and just floor it, resulting in serious accidents. 

And there never seems to be a cop in sight to stop these traffic offenders, or so I thought.

Recently, one of my students told me he received a ticket for $5,000 Argentine pesos ($42.34 USD) because one of his tail lights wasn't working. Naturally, he explained to the officer that he had no way of knowing. Regardless, the cop didn't change his mind but told him that he could get the light fixed and then fight the ticket online, which he did.

My student explained to me that usually, he would have a week to pay for the ticket. Otherwise, the fine would double the original amount and become $10,000 Argentine pesos ($84.70 USD). But since he fixed his tail light and contested the ticket, the fine was on hold until a judge made a final ruling on his case.

He was very hopeful that the judge would rule in his favor. And I was keeping my fingers crossed for him because he's a good guy and a good student. 

Unfortunately, about three weeks after he got the ticket, he received a notification that the original ruling held. And to add salt to the wound, he now had to pay a fine of $12,000 Argentine pesos ($101.63 USD).

Now most Americans would say that even a $101.63 USD fine is cheap compared to the fines we get in the United States, and it's true. I remember getting a $300 ticket simply because I had blocked a sidewalk in the Bronx with a U-Haul truck I had rented. I immediately contested the ticket and explained to the judge that I was a Floridian who had just moved to New York and that we didn't have laws like this one. Unfortunately, the judge informed me that claiming ignorance of the rules was not a justification and I was forced to pay the ticket.

So, after talking with my student, I couldn't help but feel as though justice hadn't been served. There are people in Argentina that get away with a lot worse and the authorities don't even bat an eyelash. Meanwhile, the only thing my student did was have a broken tail light, which he got fixed, and yet his original fine was more than doubled.

How is that fair?

Then again, this is a country that doesn't arrest shoplifters. Security simply demands that they return the merchandise and then sends the thieves on their merry way. So, I guess I shouldn't be surprised.