At least eight businesses along the south end of Deer Springs Town Center in North Las Vegas have had no running water since Oct. 10, after someone stole backflow devices positioned just a few yards from their storefronts. The missing hardware, suspected stolen, is being blamed for the outage, according to the property manager overseeing the shopping center.
Property manager Duc Lu said at least four backflow devices were stolen from the site, causing an estimated $10,000 in damages, as reported by KLAS 8 News Now. The devices sat close to the affected storefronts, making them an easy target for anyone looking to strip copper and brass for quick cash.
The disruption hit businesses in very different ways. Employees at Get Nails resorted to hauling in a van carrying a 125-gallon tank, pouring water into buckets to use as makeshift handwashing sinks so they could keep serving customers. Deer Springs Modern Dentistry had no such workaround — the practice closed Monday because it could not accept patients without running water, and its office manager said repairs were expected to be finished by Tuesday at noon.
Restaurant Forced to Shut Its Doors Too
Servehzah also closed Monday because of the water outage, notifying patrons via social media that it was working quickly to resolve the issue and reopen. Daron White, speaking about the situation at Servehzah, said it was bad for the community because the business owners involved were good people trying to keep their doors open.
Lu said the City of North Las Vegas utilities department had told him backflow thefts were a recurring issue at the property, though a city spokesperson did not directly address that claim when reached by the station. The spokesperson did confirm the utilities department was aware that copper parts had been stolen from the device and said the city was working with the property owner to repair it as quickly as possible.
Why a Few Dollars in Scrap Causes Thousands in Damage
The math behind incidents like this one is strikingly lopsided. Commercial backflow assemblies may be installed above ground, below ground, or inside a building. Thieves can harvest brass and copper worth only $40 to $100 in scrap while leaving behind thousands of dollars in plumbing damage and water shutoffs, according to Click2Houston.
Backflow preventers are subject to testing and compliance requirements, as discussed by Active Plumbing. Deer Springs Modern Dentistry and Servehzah both closed Monday amid the outage.
State Law Treats Repair Costs as Part of the Crime
Copper theft has also affected public infrastructure. In February 2025, copper wire theft at an NV Energy substation caused $30,000 in damages and disrupted power at Harry Reid International Airport before police arrested three suspects on felony charges, the station also reported.
The Clark County Commission enacted an ordinance in 2024 banning cash payments for scrap copper, prohibiting walk-up sales at scrap yards, and requiring proof of ownership for commercial copper wire.
Municipal rules require backflow preventers to remain accessible for annual testing, even though that same accessibility can leave them vulnerable to repeated theft. For the businesses at Deer Springs Town Center, that tradeoff has meant buckets of water hauled in by hand and doors closed to customers while repairs get underway.
