The desire of a criminal for some relatively worthless scrap metal created a nightmare at the holy land of college football.
A brass sprinkler fitting was stolen from outside the College Football Hall of Fame over the weekend, and the removal of that small piece of metal caused a back flow of water into the pipe. That led to two inches of flooding in the basement
The South Bend Tribune reports the Hall of Fame had water damage to collectable items, carpet, drywall and insulation. Total damage is believed to be at $100,000 according to South Bend police.
The brass sprinkler fitting stolen has a value of $266, but a police spokesman said it was really worth only $5 in value from a scrap metal yard.
Hall officials were forced to hold meetings at a nearby restaurant because of damage to their offices.
"We're not going to make any comment," said Lisa Klunder, executive director of the Hall. "There was very minor damage to (some of the) collectibles. We're already working to replace just a handful of items."
A similar flooding problem happened in June when an outside pipe from the water system was smashed and flooded the Hall's first floor.
South Bend won't be home to the College Football Hall of Fame much longer. It'll be leaving the home of the Fighting Irish to open up shop in Atlanta come September 2013.
