hj, you live in a perfect world
where everyone can find the curb stop or meter in an emergency.....
or willing to wait 4 hours in the night for the water district to come with their prodders and accomplish the same as you; not find the main shut off.
I'll describe for everyone the task:
No way to shut feed into the home, gate has dropped OR
Connection has broke before the main shut off inside the home.
Gotta act fast, gotta act quick, gotta have 3 different sized IPS ball valves on the truck in moments like this....most times you can access a threaded connection in nearly all these scenarios, but not always. I find these situations mostly on older homes, numerous threaded connections whereby a meter has been moved outside and left the jumper or just a transition of numerous fittings where one failed, miserably.
Pushing a get-swet into a line blowing out water when you get there is nearly impossible.
A customer in a panic will most times call a plumber in the midst of calling the water district to shut it down.
What's worse is sometimes when the water district comes to save the day, they can't always shut the water completely off. That forces you to deal with the issue with water flowing.