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! :D

[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. :rolleyes:

[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. :p

[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 (:D 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?" :o 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! :D

[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.

[Bella_Vixen]

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

Don't most places have laws against burning?

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Don't most places have laws against burning?

Yeah, but try enforcing them when your neighbors are far away from you, like in rural areas, and the wind isn't blowing toward them.

When driving in the country, I see people burning trash in barrels all the time.

[Bella_Vixen]

Odd. My older sis lives in the middle of nowhere and is no longer allowed to burn garbage. :shrug: Different rules for different places.

[elsporko]

I once dumpster dived for donuts. The donuts were kept in a seperate dumpster from the rest of the garbage and we went and got them as soon as they were thrown out but people still seem to think thats gross.

[Red_Dazes]

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. :rolleyes:

...This is the reason our Apartment manager has added a nice padlock to our dumpster. Only tenants have a key for it.

.... 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.

Awesome! The power of NICE!

I once dumpster dived for donuts. The donuts were kept in a seperate dumpster from the rest of the garbage and we went and got them as soon as they were thrown out but people still seem to think thats gross.

Not gross at all. I know Krispy Kreme does that with their doughnuts at the end of the day. They are put in a box, in a bag, and then in another bag and thrown into a "Bakery" dumpster with nothing but food in it.... when I was in HS my friends and I would raid their dumpsters on a weekly basis....*cough* Until they put up security cameras.....

[EvilEmpryss]

My city is actually starting a fight with the recycling collectors. See, they contracted with a company to run the recycling program. All recyclables must go into these green plastic containers you get from the city (little boxes are free, but they charge you for the big rolling bins).

Problem is, roving bands of junk collectors would drive around in their pickup trucks and literally clear out a neighborhood's recyclables by emptying the bins into their trucks!

So, the city was paying for the collection service, but weren't getting anything back from the recycling payout. They're trying to make a law saying that anything put into the bins is then the property of the city, contrary to the typical rule that anything left out for the grabage collection is free game.

[protege]

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

That it will :)

But, I've never had to do that. Shortly after I moved into my current home, I took out a lawn divider...that someone had built with cinder blocks. I think there were about 30-40 blocks total. Some were used at my parent's place...the rest sat on my patio over the winter. Sick of them, I carted the lot down to the curb, and spray-painted "free" on them. Next morning, the entire pile was gone.

Sadly though, those stupid concrete lions (why?) that I'd dumped there...still remain to this day. At least they kept errant cars off the grass, but still. If they didn't weigh 300 pounds each, they'd go into the trash as-is. For now, they're dumped in the weeds next to the driveway.

Where I live though, it's not unheard of for people to dump yard waste down at the elementary school. That place is surrounded by woods, so nobody would notice. But, if you get caught, you'll get hit with a nice $500 fine :eek:

Locally though, nobody seems to be too strict about dumpsters. There are very few that will actually bust someone for dropping off their trash. One such place...was one of the buildings I once worked in.

Back in 2001, my grandfather's death meant that several things had to be "made to disappear." Specifically, old cans of paint, various cleaning products (Grandpa was a rep for Johnson Wax), and other junk. Not wanting to pay the (hefty) fee accessed by her township, Grandma told me to get rid of that crap. I bagged up the entire lot, drove over to work, and tossed it into the dumpster. Of course, not wanting to possibly get into trouble, I did it on a weekend.

Rural areas in PA are different--many times, there are illegal dumps all over the place. Not surprising, many of them got started...simply because they were outside town limits, yet the towns would try to charge a high fee to haul things like...broken appliances, yard waste, etc. In other words, you could literally dump those things in a field, and nobody would say anything.

For well over 50 years, that's how we handled our trash. That, and burning it. At the time, there was a fireplace in one of the outbuildings. Grandpa or I, would haul the trash over there, and light it. When the ash pile got too high, I'd remove the fireplace grate, and use a wagon to haul the ash into the fields. All of that was dumped out, foreign particles (glass, metal, etc.) removed, and the remaining ash raked into the soil. Within weeks, you'd have pretty good fertilizer :)

[Andara Bledin]

I don't get the people who dump lawn waste.

If it's just clippings and the like, you can probably get a local landscaper to pick it up for their composting if you ask around.
Sadly though, those stupid concrete lions (why?) that I'd dumped there...still remain to this day. At least they kept errant cars off the grass, but still. If they didn't weigh 300 pounds each, they'd go into the trash as-is. For now, they're dumped in the weeds next to the driveway.
Have you tried hanging a "free" or "take me" sign on the lions? I can imagine that a lot of people might think that you put them there as decoration if they aren't marked.

^-.-^

[trailerparkmedic]

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! :D

The thrift store in my little sister's college town would go around and pick up any furniture (especially sofas) left out near dumpsters when everyone moved out. They would then sell the furniture back to the students that fall.

I've also grabbed stuff from near the dumpster and I never throw good stuff into the dumpster. Usually someone picks it up within a day or two. It's my version of recycling ;)

[lolad]

I don't get the people who dump lawn waste.

If it's just clippings and the like, you can probably get a local landscaper to pick it up for their composting if you ask around.


The local lawnmowing service dump all their grass clippings at the edge of the bush across the road from my house.
And since there's such a large amount there I add mine to it.

It all came good recently when a guy a few houses down used his escavator to stir it up and move the compost quality soil to a new pile for locals to take to add to their gardens.
It all went over that weekend :D

[protege]

Have you tried hanging a "free" or "take me" sign on the lions? I can imagine that a lot of people might think that you put them there as decoration if they aren't marked.

I tried that. Problem is, that they're ugly as hell and very heavy. In fact, I nearly gave myself another hernia trying to move the damn things :eek:

[blas]

And this morning, he shows up ready to be a snoop and an idiot like he always is...

As he leaves from snooping around someone's apartment, he goes into the trunk of the business vehicle, grabs several garbage bags, and then tosses them into the dumpster.

I know, he can do whatever he wants, it's just the principle. That's our dumpster you testicle tick.