Two Tinley Park hockey lovers faced their punishment Thursday for using water from a fire hydrant to help fill a DIY backyard ice rink.
Tony Nelin, 21, and Timmy Ryan, 20, were ordered to pay the $127.44 cost of the water and serve 16 hours each of community service. The judge who sentenced them gave the men a tip on how to burn up their service time: get in touch with the park district and set up a skating program for kids at the rink.
Cook County Judge Daniel Lawrence Peters told the Nelin and Ryan he understood why they built the 91-by-43-foot ice rink, according to the Chicago Tribune. The problem was how they did it.
In December police got a call from a Tinley Park High School custodian about a fire hose seen hooked up to a hydrant on school property. Officers followed the hose through a wooded area to the partially frozen rink.
Nelin and Ryan were handed citations for tampering with a fire hydrant.
The group of four friends told NBCChicago last month they got permission to build the rink in the backyard and then borrowed 250 feet of fire hose from a firefighter they know. Nelin said they partially filled the rink using water from the house and used the hydrant Sunday for a couple hours to save on the water bill.
"We just wanted to do something productive for the winter instead of sit on the couch and play video games," said Nelin.
"If we had known we could ask permission, we would have done that," said another friend, Jake Maas.
