Vegas myth busted: Water vendors on pedestrian bridge refill bottles
A new ordinance banning parking on the Las Vegas Strip pedestrian bridge is putting a spotlight on those already illegally doing business there. In fact, as "Vital Vegas" blogger Scott Robben recently pointed out , a group of unlicensed bottled water dealers may have played a not-insignificant role in triggering this rule.
These vendors sell water during the summer for $1 to $5 a bottle to unplanned tourists on vacation.
But are these providers doing something worse? According to persistent rumors, tourist sites often collect empty bottles from trash cans and fill them with tap water.
Myth Interpretation
The earliest version of this warning we could find comes from a legitimate source. In 2010, late Las Vegas police officer Mike Ford told KLAS-TV/Las Vegas that homeless people were “taking water bottles out of trash cans and filling them with Water from an unknown source—could be a faucet, could be somewhere.”—then put them in coolers and sell them for $2.
Tourists had no idea where the bottles came from and when they opened them, someone had already drank from them. "
But wouldn’t anyone notice if those clicks weren’t accompanied by the opening of the bottle cap?
The 2008 movie Slumdog Millionaire covers this.
In the video, the character Salim can be seen using super glue to stick the cap on a water bottle that he took out of the bin and filled with tap water.
A Tripadvisor user from Roanoke, Virginia, who apparently hasn't seen the movie, heard the same story from a more reliable source.
"I actually heard it from two people, the first was an Elvis impersonator on the Star Bus Tour," the user wrote in 2012.
"Elvis said they took the empty bottles out of the trash, filled them with tap water and sealed the top with super glue so you thought you were getting a new bottle."
No water included
Sorry, Elvis, but the Walmart closest to the Las Vegas Strip is currently selling 35-packs of 16.9-ounce Pure Life purified water for $7, including tax.
That works out to a cost of 20 cents per bottle.
More likely, someone spent hours diving into trash cans, collecting completely uncrushed empty water bottles, just one brand of water bottles with matching color caps, and then refilled each bottle, or they were willing to sacrifice 20 Cent profit for every $7 spent at Walmart, $28-$168 per bottle?
While there is no guarantee of the honesty of those who decide to break the law to earn an income, we have never heard of an operator being caught doing so. This is always probably because it would be a ridiculous waste of time.
Oh, and super glue?Not only does it fail to reproduce the clicking sound it makes when opening, but it also leaves a distinct smell.
Water on the bridge
Even though what water vendors in Las Vegas are doing is illegal, they are not asking you for money. They don’t pester you for more tips after taking a picture with you in a superhero or showgirl costume. They won't trick you with confidence games like Three Card Monte.
The services they provide may have saved many lives. A 2002 study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology concluded that dehydration increases the risk of heart attack by 46 percent in men and 59 percent in women.
If Clark County, the governing body of the Strip, provided more opportunities for dehydrated tourists along the Strip to drink alcohol in a legal, affordable and sanitary manner, illegal vendors would not be selling illegal beverages.
Unfortunately, we don't think the $7 water at the resort gift shop or the water dispenser with parts people put in their mouths for hygiene reasons is cheap.
So the next time you're walking down the Las Vegas Strip in 115-degree heat and you're thirsty, especially after a few hard, dehydrating drinks, it's totally okay to accept an ice-cold drink from an unlicensed stranger. OK. At least in your case, that's much less risky than walking an extra mile and a half. Suppose you arrive to find a water seller who has not yet been taken to jail.
Look for “Vegas Myth Busted” every Monday
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