Is this really stealing?

[DrFaroohk]

Your company has merchandise that cannot and will not be sold. It will be thrown into the garbage. Is it really stealing to claim it for your own? I mean...does anyone really own GARBAGE? This could go for a steamed hotdog that was past its prime, or a big screen TV that has a scratch on the side and or something. I can kind of understand a lot of companies view - if you got a free one, you're not buying one. But that being said, we're talking about THIS one, the one laying in the dumpster, and whether I buy one or not, this is one is gone and you lose the money you paid for it. Who cares whether it gets thrown away, burned, or winds up in my living room?

[upsidedown_orchid]

I think if something is in the garbage, it's up for grabs, legally. It's public property (that's how cops and detectives can take evidence from garbage cans without a warrent). I'm personally of a waste not, want not mentality, myself, so I don't consider it stealing. You should check with your company policy though. Unless it's a really nice big screen, it may not be worth your job.

[Andara Bledin]

That can be a hotly debated issue.

According to one site, "Stealing trash is not illegal. The Supreme Court ruled in 1988 that once an item is left for trash pickup, there is no expectation of privacy or continued ownership."

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[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

That can be a hotly debated issue.

According to one site, "Stealing trash is not illegal. The Supreme Court ruled in 1988 that once an item is left for trash pickup, there is no expectation of privacy or continued ownership."

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But here's the thing: Does that apply to perfectly good items that are put out with the trash so that somebody can later steal them?

When my mom had her retail job over 15 years ago, there was a custodian who would select items off the salesfloor, put them in garbage bags and put them into the dumpster, and then fish them out later.

We had a kid who would do pretty much the same thing; take an item he wanted, throw it in the garbage compactor, and drive to the back of the store and pick it up later. Moron was brazen enough to brag about it to his friends, some of whom worked at the store. That is how we ended up with a lock on the garbage compactor.

[DrFaroohk]

Well that IS stealing...I mean it was stolen from the shelf and taken out of the store. I'm just talking about any old thing...like sometimes we get a vendor come in and will say "Ok we're not going to be selling corona anymore, so we're going to pitch these forty cases of it into trash." Haha, yeah, into the trash alright, right into my fridge.

[Gurndigarn]

According to one site, "Stealing trash is not illegal. The Supreme Court ruled in 1988 that once an item is left for trash pickup, there is no expectation of privacy or continued ownership."

We had a trash removal service once that we had to sign a contract with that indicated, quite clearly, that once an item has been removed by the company, "title of property is transferred to [company]".

I had to wonder what caused that particular clause to be added.

[digilight]

Typically the trash is still considered private property as long as its not in a common use container or a mixed receptical. An example would be, 1 or 2 dumpsters for a strip mall (all the tenants sharing the single dumpster its a common receptical). This was made law in several areas (check your area for exacts) to make it a minor offense to go "dumpster diving" or trashcan picking along the street on trash pickup day.

As far as is it stealing or not. Nope I dont think its stealing. The companies are probably dead set against letting someone take home the items like the TV, the Beer, the 1500 copies of playboys, etc so that there is no confusion of any employee walking out with any "unpaid" merchandise. That and it may be in the contract that your store has to "destroy" it, to get proper credit for it. If it was given away and the company found out about it, then the store would be in hot water.

[JustADude]

We had a trash removal service once that we had to sign a contract with that indicated, quite clearly, that once an item has been removed by the company, "title of property is transferred to [company]".

I had to wonder what caused that particular clause to be added.

Most likely someone went all psycho over them taking something that had been discarded and using it, obviously. Specifically, no clue, but I bet it would've mad a great post!


My current job, we have outright claim to any mistakes, pick-up pies that have been unclaimed for so long they're not 'fit to serve'. Still plenty fit to eat, and dang tasty though, if often odd (pineapple on a The Meats, for example).

I can understand not doing that when there might be question over whether a product is actually 'bad' or not. In fast food places, people would likely cook too much intentionally, to get at it when it expires, or 'expire' food early, and other companies are likely worried about things that are still salable being written off... though if it's a discontinued something, yeah, I'd say pass it on along like theaters do for a lot of the promo material.

[Becks]

Deliberately altering something for such a purpose would be stealing. Letting it be garbage by company standards, and then taking it home, would not be.

This is just MY opinion, however.

[powerboy]

The way that I see it, is if an item, that is meant to be thrown away, then no it is not stealing. It is stealing if someone wanted that radio, and put it in the trash, so they could come back to take it. I used to take pens and what not, that was going into the trash, back when I worked over nights at OfficeMax

[NightAngel]

As long as you're not damaging it or whatnot to get it to the trash then no.

We had a HUGE display of bags of beef jerky which is really expensive. There was nothing wrong with it. For some reason we received a corporate order to throw away all unsold product and it's displayer. The displayer went to the trash- the jerky went home with all the employees. Why would we put in the trash what we can feed our families with? Really.

[draggar]

We just had this exact thing go on at work. Corp told us to adjust out specific items and then "destroy them and throw them out". Now, there's some really usefull items in there that could be used for service and/or customer satisfaction. I don't mean that orange and purple leather case (unless it's a local school's colors), but chargers and semi-recently needed accessories we did keep quite a few for our service (adjusted them out then put them in with our service supply).

I am willing to be money that a lot of people either:
A) Kept a lot of these for themselves
B) Gave them out to store employees
C) Gave them away to customers
(I don't have an issue with these as long as they were taken out of the packaging and they were going to use them for non-monetary reasons)

The more "shady" people:
A) Took them (in or out of the packaging) and sold them
B) Took them (in the packaging) and tried to return them in other locations (or had a friend do it)
C) Sold them in store at a discounted price and "pocketed" the cash

(BTW all of these are against policy, but I think corp would overlook the first 3 especially if no one went crazy over it).

I did see, over the weekend, at a local flea market a HUGE increase in these accessories for sale, though.

[tendomentis]

I would be VERY wary of doing that with food that has been ordered to be thrown out (like at a grocery store). Just recently, a small general store in my area was ordered by its "head office" to throw out EVERY jar of Peter Pan peanut butter (even the one's still in the box in the back). Sometimes there is a good reason.

But if I'm driving by the Best Buy and I see the edge of a 54" Samsung plasma screen sticking out of the dumpster, you had better believe I will straight-up castrate anybody who stands between me and that TV

[justZu]

At the ballpark, any food left at the end of the night we can eat and write it down as spoilage. The supervisors are OK with this. (of course, once it hits the garbage, no one is going to fish it out for a snack). Unfortunately we can't do this with the beer. But I suppose that is to prevent deliberate spoilage, so they have a point.
So I suppose if the supervisors don't mind, then it's not stealing.

I have a friend who worked at the Disney Store and when they dispose of stock, it must be completely destroyed. A manager will accompany the staffer to the dumpster and make sure anything discarded is made unusable. Snowglobes will be smashed, t-shirts cut up, etc. This prevents anyone from picking through their trash for usable things.

[Andara Bledin]

Also, as I think someone mentioned, if an item is ordered to be destroyed, then the manufacturer most likely will be re-imbursing the store for the destroyed merchandise. Not destroying it in that instance probably is illegal.

I find the idea of destroying unsold merchandise repugnant. I'd be happier if companies that did that (such as with books) instead of crediting 100% for the to-be-destroyed merchandise, they credit 70% or something and let the store sell what it has at whatever the market will bear. That'd make a whole lot of people happy. The manufacturer won't have to pay as much back, the store will likely get more profits on the sales, people who otherwise might not be able to afford or find the items will, and environmental groups will see less use of landfill space.

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