"Stealing" out of rubbish bins/skips

Middy

My mum and I visited a friend. A few doors down, there was a skip with a load of books thrown in there. My mum asked the people could she help herself and we went into the skip and took a boot full of books. Most of them she took to the charity shop. A few of them she kept. Including a 5 volume set of Essex windmills - 2nd hand book shops wanting £240 for them and a London A-Z map from 1922.

duchy

Our council does free pick up for large items -sofas, washing machines, furniture , carpet-anything really. We get one free pick up a year and pay I think £12 a time if we need more than one. I used mine a few weeks ago -I had to keep looking for more junk to throw out as the wood, broken vacuum cleaner ,old TV. broken chairs etc were disappearing within minutes of me putting them out. Brilliant !

My favourite was where I used to live -four times a year the council would put several large skips in the road overnight and collect them the next morning. It suited everyone-the junk went and people had a chance to dumpster dive close to home. The nicest stuff never made it into the skip but was placed by the side of it to make it easier for someone to take it away

marisa

soolin wrote: »

with a notice saying 'please help yourself', and not one thing disappeared.

Doing it wrong, if you put a sign saying 'hands off, keep out' then it would all be gone overnight

lukerichardson40

I once found a really nice old pub sign in a skip. It was there with bags of old carpet and other assorted junk. So I took it out and started walking off down the street with my find. A minute later a police car flashed me and gave me a blast with his horn. Asked me where I got that. I said 'in a skip just down there' pointing to the street I got it. He said I was to put it down. I refused and said I found it in a skip, it is going to get thrown away. He then got out the car and told me if I dont put it down he is going to arrest me for 'theft by finding'!!! I had to leave it. Anyway... talking to a more human policeman, turns out it isnt really theft by finding and he was just being an @rsehole.

sofaman

I find it's hit or miss, but I've found some bits 'n' pieces that were useful.

ulsterbeef

lukerichardson40 wrote: »

I once found a really nice old pub sign in a skip. It was there with bags of old carpet and other assorted junk. So I took it out and started walking off down the street with my find. A minute later a police car flashed me and gave me a blast with his horn. Asked me where I got that. I said 'in a skip just down there' pointing to the street I got it. He said I was to put it down. I refused and said I found it in a skip, it is going to get thrown away. He then got out the car and told me if I dont put it down he is going to arrest me for 'theft by finding'!!! I had to leave it. Anyway... talking to a more human policeman, turns out it isnt really theft by finding and he was just being an @rsehole.

Its a grey area. The first police man was right, in a way. I watched a program, fake or fortune or one of them ones and a man found paintings by the seaside, clearly dumped. He appeared with them on the TV show.... behold.... the real owners turned up after the found they were worth money and wanted a piece of the cake now.... It caused a legal wrangle

geordie_joe

ulsterbeef wrote: »

Its a grey area. The first police man was right, in a way. I watched a program, fake or fortune or one of them ones and a man found paintings by the seaside, clearly dumped. He appeared with them on the TV show.... behold.... the real owners turned up after the found they were worth money and wanted a piece of the cake now.... It caused a legal wrangle

It's not a grey area and the first policeman was not right.

I saw the same programme and you are missing a huge point. The paintings had been stolen years earlier and subsequently dumped.

There is a world of difference between the rightful owner throwing things into a skip and a thief throwing stolen good into a skip, or otherwise dumping it.

The legal wrangle was the rightful owner proving they had been stolen and not just thrown out.

Daedalus

It is a criminal offence to take property from a skip. Property is always owned by someone, by placing the item in the skip the owner has divested ownership and it has transferred to the skip owner. The same way when you put your bins out the content belongs to you until ownership transfers to the council/refuge collectors.

The 'grey area' is that it is very rarely enforced.

Ian4996

I've got a quick question on this so thought I'd bump up this old thread:

There's a derelict pub near me (been shut about 2 months), skip outside and I've just noticed some reasonable stuff in it. I would knock and ask, but there's no-one there.

If I was to take stuff out the skip but post a letter through the door saying 'to whoever owns the pub, I've taken a few things out your skip assuming you don't want them. If you do want them for any reason, please let me know and I'll bring them back, here's my phone number', am I legally covered from being accused of theft by finding or whatever?

prowla

To my mind, the person who rented the skip may be worrying about whether they've over-filled it and might need to get another, so helping yourself to something from it could be doing them a favour.

I would also suggest that taking items is not theft, since the owner has given it up at the point they put it in the skip.

I'm not sure whether the title of the goods has passed on to the skip owner or the eventual tip; that would depend upon the contract the person who hired the skip signed up to.