Pipes stolen from 3 public restrooms in Roseville - Chicago News and Weather | FOX 32 News

By Taryn Asher
Fox 2 News

ROSEVILLE, Mich. (WJBK) -- How low will they go?

"There was water flowing, and we had to close the bathroom in order to get somebody here and get it fixed," said Ray Bazzi.

Bathroom bandits swiped pipes in public restrooms three times in the last week in Roseville.  This scrappers appear to be targeting McDonald's starting with a shared location on Gratiot.  Bazzi manages the gas station there.

"It's hard to keep track of who's in the bathroom, so they were in there just basically doing what they wanted, and we didn't know until after they were gone and the pipes were missing," he explained.

Police said the thieves enter the male restroom and remove the exposed piping, the valves that connect to the toilets and urinals.  In one case, they also stole the flush valve assembly.

It appears there is nothing restaurants or places like McDonald's can do to stop them.  It's not like they can put cameras in the bathrooms or prevent people from using public restrooms.

"It's not personally against us.  It's against the public because the bathroom's for the public and it just takes it away from the public.  It's inconvenience, definitely, but we're on guard now," Bazzi said.

Police said the scavengers hit another restaurant on Gratiot and a McDonald's on Twelve Mile in Roseville.  There an employee was able to get a possible suspect description -- a 5'9" man wearing a light brown, Carhartt-type coat with a blue shirt.  He was seen getting into a red, four door vehicle, possibly a foreign make.

If you have any information, call police.