Imagine turning on your sink to fill a glass of water — and nothing comes out. You paid your water bill, but the water isn’t working.
CATCH UP: Everything you need to know about the KPRC 2 ‘DRAINED’ Investigation
That’s what happened to Vu Pham, a Houston developer, after someone stole the city water meters from five of his rental homes — twice.
The KPRC 2 ‘DRAINED’ Investigation has looked into everything from high water bills to shady contract dealings. Now, we are looking into stolen water meters.
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Pham told KPRC 2 Investigates reporter Amy Davis the city left him and his tenants high and dry for nearly three months.
Pham’s latest project involved building six homes in Houston’s Third Ward, at the corner of Dennis and Nagle streets. The first family moved in, but before he could rent the others, someone swiped five water meters.
“We opened up the water meter box and realized the water meter was gone,” Pham said.
“They were kind enough to shut off the water every time they stole the meter,” he added.
Construction thefts are common, Pham said, but this was the first time he experienced stolen water meters.
Old city water meters are made of brass, which metal recyclers buy for about $1.15 a pound. That means a thief could get roughly $5 to $10 per meter.
Pham and his tenants lost much more. As the landlord, Pham must provide running water for his tenants.
“We give them an option to move out to a hotel or an Airbnb at our cost,” Pham said.
It took the city almost three months to replace four of the stolen meters. During that time, Pham couldn’t rent the houses.
Repeated calls to the city to replace the meters were time-consuming and frustrating.
“We cannot just go and install a meter at our discretion without approval from the city,” Pham said.
The city did replace the tenant’s water meter within 24 hours the first time it was stolen.
But when thieves stole that meter again on March 18, Pham had no luck getting it replaced — until KPRC 2 emailed the city on June 4, more than two months later.
A city spokesperson said, “Typically, stolen meter work orders are completed on the same day they are assigned, except in cases where the property is a vacant lot, under construction with no service line, or based on the professional judgment of the technician that reinstalling the meter would likely result in it being stolen again due to the absence of an active tenant. Most thefts occur in areas where new development is in progress, or the property is vacant.”
Since January, the city said 123 water meters have been stolen in Houston.
Beginning in April, the city started replacing stolen meters with Sensus Ally non-brass meters. So far, none of these newer meters have been stolen.
Pham says the city needs to streamline the process for reporting stolen meters, so customers aren’t left weeks or months without water.
“Come up with a process that can help people going through this and help replace the meter in a timely manner,” he said.
A city spokesperson told KPRC 2 they removed all base water and wastewater charges from Pham’s account for the months he had no water meters.
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“Houston Public Works acknowledges the delay in replacing the water meters for the Dennis Street properties after receiving the first report of the theft in March 2025 and apologizes for any disruption. Our Utility Billing team removed all base water and wastewater charges for Mr. Pham when he was without a water meter and for the vacant lots at the other addresses. We reviewed the 311 call logs and were not told about the landlord having to relocate tenants due to the delay, and did not find records of advising the owner to hire a plumber.”
City of Houston spokesperson
