Tom Selleck Water Siphoning Case Settles

July 17th, 2015. By LucyC

When the going gets tough the tough get going—off to the public water fountain, in this case. California resident, Tom Selleck, of previous Magnum PI fame and lately Blue Bloods, decided to tackle the drought conditions in a creative, if not arguably illegal manner and made use of a public water hydrant to irrigate his parched farm in Southern California.

Selleck owns a 60-acre ranch and avocado farm in nearby Hidden Valley. The drought, which has been ongoing for the past four years, is likely decimating his crops.  While there could well be a lot of other people in the same boat, who either didn’t come up with idea or didn’t have the funds or balls to pull it off, Selleck did, and it didn’t go unnoticed.

What exactly did he do? He hired a commercial water tanker to fill up from a public hydrant in Thousand Oaks, CA, at least a dozen times over a two year period. Nice.  All this water poaching began in 2013, apparently. 

It is, or was, a very wild-west kind of move on Selleck’s part. Or maybe it’s just called looking after your own a$$. However you want to call it, officials hit him with a lawsuit accusing him of pilfering water from a public hydrant to irrigate his farm.

According to the civil complaint filed by the Calleguas Municipal Water District in Ventura County Superior Court, the District documented seven separate occasions when a water tanker showed up, filled up and left. The complaint stated that the water was taken to “the Hidden Valley area, where the Selleck property is located,” between Sept. 20, 2013, and Oct. 3, 2013.

The district sent a cease-and-desist letter to Selleck and his wife, Jillie Mack, on Nov. 26, 2013, but all for nought, as the same truck again siphoned water on Dec. 16, 2013, according to the lawsuit. Ok, that takes some cojones. And not in a good way.

According to officials, Selleck’s ranch is located outside the Calleguas district, so he should be using his own groundwater supply. I’m betting he already thought of that.

Weirdly, the lawsuit is not about the money, apparently. The value of the water was next to nothing, that is in the eyes of the district. The actual cash value the district could reportedly sell 325,000 gallons of water for is as low as $1,200, according to Eric Bergh, manager of resources for the Calleguas Municipal district. The district was asking Selleck to pay $21,685.55 for investigators it hired and court costs. So, effectively, he got away with taking the water?

But low and behold—they’ve reached a settlement. I’m guessing it’s got something to do with the publicity—not the kind anyone wants, let alone a 70–year old actor—who plays a good guy on TV.

Interestingly, the local sheriff’s department investigated the claims but couldn’t establish that a crime had taken place, according to Capt. John Reilly. So stealing public property isn’t a crime? According to Bergh, “It’s about equity and fairness and protecting the resources for the people who are paying for it.” Isn’t that why we have laws? Or am I missing something here…

This was posted on Friday, July 17th, 2015 at 2:18 pm and is filed under Crazy Sh*t Lawyers See, Totally Tortelicious . Feel free to respond, or trackback. Read our comments policy.