My Landlord Is An Idiot....

[blas]

So today, one of the landlords/maintenance folk got to witness something that happens quite often around here.

Usually, the garbage truck comes around on Fridays, I'm not sure which day recycling folk come to pick that up.

So that means, usually every Thursday, a few of our local weirdos go driving from apartment complex garbage to garbage, and to the recycling bin (which is bigger than the dumpsters) as well. There's two of them that I can think of offhand, but it was a different guy today.

I was out for a smoke and saw a beat up older Neon with tons of crap strapped to the top of it stop right by the dumpsters. This guy with a big black trenchcoat that looked to covered in....something icky.....got out and immediately started going through the trash and the recycling and pocketing individual cans and bottles, then started taking entire bags of it and tossing them in his car.

Just so happened, it's that time of year when the property management company wants to vaccuum all the steps and porches of all the buildings. The landlord was getting back into his van and about to leave when he saw the guy halfway in the dumpster.....he yelled at him "HEY YOU!".....and the guy scrambled into his car and tried to peel away (but we all know Neons are not good getaway cars).

The landlord took off after him in his van. I couldn't see how far he got.

I wonder if we'll start seeing cops patrolling the place now. Quite frankly, it only bothers me when people go through our garbage when they are really creepy about it and they actually hop IN the dumpster.

[LillFilly]

Eeee, dumpster diving for just trash??? Bottles and cans to return maybe (I do that to be nice to the environment ) but whole bags of trash? That's not dumpster diving, that's mental.

True Dumpster Diving is when college is letting-out and you check the dumpsters for all the cool stuff the students don't have room in their cars to take home! (chairs, clothes, books, etc.) Or when your neighbors move-out!

[bainsidhe]

On a different note, my sister was one who would go around to apartments to ADD trash to the bins. She has to pay for trash service, so when cash was short she would deposit it at apartment complexes and fast food restaurants.

[poofy_puff]

My city just put a thing in place where for large items you have to call this special 3rd-party company to come get it and they have a brochure with a menu of how much each thing costs. $60 to remove a couch!

[Talon]

The dumpster diver could have been trolling for personal information with which to steal someone's identity. Hopefully everyone in your building shreds their documents before dumping.

[Dreamstalker]

My city just put a thing in place where for large items you have to call this special 3rd-party company to come get it and they have a brochure with a menu of how much each thing costs.

My grandmother's town in RI has a thing where trash needs to go in special yellow bags (I guess if it's not in the yellow bags it doesn't get picked up?), and charges residents for the privilege. The yellow bags are twice the cost of black ones (less than half the strength--useless for yard waste), and can only be gotten through the town.

[blas]

I'm without a doubt that these are the bums who go all over town to recycling bins and dumpsters looking for cans and bottles.

Not everyone is good at recycling, I will fully admit that I constantly throw bottles and cans in the trash. That's why they go in the trash and rip up the bags. They know there are lazy people like me out there.

And yes, later at night on my nights off or right before going to work, I have seen random vehicles drive by and people try to unload several bags of trash into our dumpster. It happened at my old apartment as well. And at the gas station I worked at. People don't like to pay for garbage.

Why don't they just take the cheapskate/Mr. Krabs route like my dad does and just burn it, lol?

[Crossbow]

We get a lot of different people looking for scrap metal, but not many (or any, that I know of) taking other garbage. Hey, it let me get rid of a dead washer and dryer without having to worry about paying to haul it away.

[Spork4pedro]

We have a lot of homeless peeps do the same sort of thing here. I never really saw it until I moved up here, so last week when our city waste maintenance delivered our brand new recycling bins ( finally!) there was a note on them to keep them out of public view in case of scavengers. I was so confused that I asked my boyfriend "Why the hell would raccoons and rodents want recycling?" Never occured to me that those recycling guys would come out to homes! Luckily for us we won't be using those bins for cans and bottles. We like to get our money back!

[Andara Bledin]

Eeee, dumpster diving for just trash??? Bottles and cans to return maybe (I do that to be nice to the environment ) but whole bags of trash? That's not dumpster diving, that's mental.

They're dumpster diving in the recycling bin, so those bags should be full of nothing but recyclables.

I'm of the opinion that if they don't make a ton of noise and they don't leave a mess behind them, more power to them.

As for the charge for oversized items, the last place I lived had a 2-item per year allowance. Over that and you had to pay. I found that you just left whatever it was on the curb with a "free" sign on it the day after trash pickup, and it was usually gone by the next one.

^-.-^

[Primer]

As for the charge for oversized items, the last place I lived had a 2-item per year allowance. Over that and you had to pay. I found that you just left whatever it was on the curb with a "free" sign on it the day after trash pickup, and it was usually gone by the next one.

^-.-^

If you put a $25 "price tag" on it, it will disappear even faster...

[poofy_puff]

If you put a $25 "price tag" on it, it will disappear even faster...

Good idea!

[Teskeria]

I didn't used to bother with returning cans. Where I lived these were some elderly Asian ladies who would go through the trash. most of my neighbors yelled at them (calling then chinks and so forth). I step out one day and see one lady going through my trash. She freezes when I open the door and looks at me. I figure she was expecting nastiness. I just smiled and said 'I'd appreciate it if you tied the bags back up when you are done" For the rest of the time I lived there, mine was the only trash not left all over. And one week when I was ill, she pulled my trash to pickup for me.

[Dreamstalker]

In my old building, the recycle bins were under one of my windows. A guy would come around like clockwork at about 7 AM to sift through the cans and bottles; he never left a mess and tried to make as little noise as possible. I saw him once or twice; he was evidently homeless or close to it, but clean and polite.

Here, the cleaners will drag the bins to the sidewalk on Tuesday (pickup is Wednesday). I've witnessed a fairly snappy-looking guy in a Town Car drive up and start going through the bins...not that there's anything wrong with that, it just amuses us due to the cost of gas (especially last summer).

I've been known to liberate clean boxes from the trash room for shipping sold stuff; our downstairs neighbor will actually leave any boxes she thinks I can use outside her back door.

[PepperElf]

i saw that when i was in south africa
some of the poor locals went into our giant dumpster looking for anything they could get

i saw one of them wearing a set of navy uniform coveralls the second or third day in port.