Helping others in your community

I keep writing about helping others even if you don't know them but I also understand in this world how hard that sometimes is.  An example:

Yesterday I heard on the scanner of a lady who had a broken water pipe and could not get it shut off. They asked the police to go shut it off as they had not found anyone yet. The police did not have the equipment to shut it off. They asked the fire department to go, he did not have the equipment but was trying and could not reach far enough down to get it shut off.

I called dispatch and told them to advise the fire department I was bringing him a shut off value. I grabbed my shut off rod ( I believe in being prepared because if something happens you need your water off in the middle of the night it is a long time before someone gets there) and took off. I arrived and gave it to the fireman and he turned the water off.

The lady then said "you can just leave the rod here where I can turn it back on" I said "no, I need to have it at my house in case I have trouble as it is cold enough a lot of people might need it". She said "well I can't be without water until Monday"  I told her that whoever came to fix the pipe would be able to turn it back on when they were done.  She said "fine I will just call the fire department every time I want it turned on as the water department is not going to do anything, they are threatening to turn it off already.  I told her "sorry but I am not with the fire department and I am not going to leave it with them either nor am I going to run back and forth across town every time she wants the water on and off she is just going to have to call someone to fix it.  She said "well then who's job is it to fix it?" I told her since it was at her house it was her landlord or hers if she owned the residence. I told her we could turn it back on before we left. She said she was calling the city and the water department cause they need to fix it not her.  I told her sorry but I need to keep my turn off as who knows who needs it in this type of weather. She got mad and stomped off and slammed the door.

The fireman turned to me and said "well she might not appreciate you coming out but I sure do". I told him "well I will thank you for turning it off and coming out in this weather for something that was not the job of a fireman just because he wanted to help"

Hard to want to do things for people when they can't even say thank you and are rude to you. I mean come on, I need that turn off is why I have it. Others might need it and I have never seen this lady before in my life am I going to leave something that important with her where she can run out and turn her water on and off all the time. She can go to the store and find something that will work.

I really thought I was being the good guy and helping my community.  Guess that is life. Then I get home and find out if something had broke I would have had to pay for it since it is not my job to turn off someones water, that only the city and the water dept. can do that. What is wrong with this scenario? Is this the time of word we should live in?  Where if you help someone you get sued?

I put the story on my facebook page and one person (and it was because they were worried about me) told me not to do that again. Most were very supportive and said "please come help me if my water breaks)  If it breaks on your side of the meter you have to pay for the wasted water.

No matter where it breaks it sure is a mess when it is in the teens and freezing ice almost instantly it will turn your whole yard into a frozen mess.

Guess I did not learn my lesson because if someone breaks a  pipe I will be there. Do you think she would have felt the same way if it was an inside pipe spraying water all over her house which the next call might be????