An interesting find. I stumbled upon a fire hydrant on the street with a meter and a hose hooked up to it. Contractors were using it in their construction process on a new building which apparently didn’t have its utilities hooked up yet. I assumed this is how they were billed for the public water they used – on the good old honor system.
Here’s the hydrant in context. It begs the question: If one were to hook up the meter in reverse, would it run the number down? Or would it be fruitless and possibly lead to karmic disaster, as Ferris Beuller experienced?