A fire hydrant, a "Slip ‘N Slide" and 1,500 gallons of water have landed a couple of 36-year-old men in hot water. The two men have been charged with public intoxication, interference with official acts and fifth degree theft for allegedly stealing water from a fire hydrant in Underwood for the outdoor water slide.
"It’s amazing," Sergeant Dwayne Ritchie of the Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Department says of the case.
Ritchie says the caper happened this past Saturday. Michael Wheeler of Omaha and Shane Benedict of Neola were taken into custody outside of Underwood after the trailer they were pulling behind their pick-up blew a tire, sending the pick-up and the trailer into a ditch. The two men were hauling a 1,500 gallon tank filled with water on that trailer.
A witness took a picture of the two men and their stop to get water from the fire hydrant in Underwood, but Sergeant Ritchie says the two suspects told a different story.
"They actually said they had taken the tank and filled it…in Council Bluffs, which was not true," Ritchie says.
Both men were held over the weekend in the Pottawattamie County Jail. Ritchie says the men told authorities they had hoped to use the water for a "Slip ‘N Slide."
"Just looking for some good, clean fun, I guess," the deputy says.
An unidentified teenager was also involved in the incident, but no charges were filed against the teen.