Dumpster Diving? Legalities?

Edinburghlass_2

What I found really annoying when paying for a skip is the people who come along and put their rubbish in without asking :mad:

But like Jay Jay, I once put out some household stuff ready to go to the tip and it all quickly disappeared overnight, in fact one lady put a note through the door asking if we had any more of the carpet she had got last week :eek:

Jay-Jay_4

edinburghlass wrote:

What I found really annoying when paying for a skip is the people who come along and put their rubbish in without asking :mad:

yeah! someone put a whole bloody bathroom suite in ours!!! :mad:

moggins

I quite often put big items out by my dustbin to take to the tip when I have the time, I never ever say no if someone knocks at my door and asks for a particular item but it really, really annoys me when I get up in the morning and it has just disappeared.

I know it's probably daft but it's a whole different feeling, even knowing it's saved me a trip to the tip it still feels like someone has come on to my property and stolen from me.

If I spotted something in a skip that I could use I would always have the manners to ask before I took it.

IvanOpinion

As others have already said to take anything from someone elses bion is illegal ... a law that the vast majority of us would agree with ... otherwise you are leaving yourself open to any old Tom, !!!!!! and Harry to search through your rubbish to find out about your lifestyle, accounts, medical conditions etc.

On the crutches front ... if they are National Health crutches then they should be returned to the hospital from which they came (if no longer required). A doctor friend of mine has told me many times about the cost of crutches that go out on loan and are never seen again ... they lie in peoples garages, in their roofspaces or are simply sent to the dump. Maybe it is time that hospitals charged for the crutches and gave the money back when they were returned.

Ivan

aliasojo

Ivan, I don't know if the the crutches I lifted were National Health ones or not. I do know that they were damaged. They were of the (very) old wooden type, the wood was split lengthways and certainly would not have been able to be used as proper crutches again, I assumed that's why they had been put out for the bin. Ideal for play though once the spilts had been covered with tape.

I know all about the 'return to hospital' thing with regard to health aids. Members of my family work in hospitals in Scotland as radiologists and nurses so we are well aware of several issues regarding the National Health. Trust me, the subject seems to come up for a grumble at every wedding, funeral and christening, lol. Also, my Father was in need of several aids towards the end of his life and we returned all he had after his death.

Since at present I feel a bit like the villian of the peace here, I also want to try to regain my previous good character by pointing out that I would never dream of taking anything from anyone's property even if it was sat by their bin, nor would I actually go into their bin whether it was on their property or on the road. The crutches I picked up were lying on the ground, on the road, beside many bins. I had no idea whose they were in the first place anyway.

Where we live, everyone has to wheel their bin to a communual pick-up point at a set place on the road. There's no way of knowing whose is whose unless the bins are marked with a house number. Many are not. (We were told by the council when the wheelie bins were handed out, NOT to mark the bins which I thought was a bit daft but there you are.)

A skip is a slightly different matter, it's usually fairly obvious whose it is and if I was tempted by some choice 'rubbish', then yes, I agree with moggins, I would ask.

(Btw, the crutches are the only thing I've ever lifted and I only did that as I thought they could be recycled via the school, since they were obviously no longer fit for their original purpose.)

IvanOpinion

DW has just been reading over my shoulder and has reminded me of something that happened to me many years ago. We went to the local scrap yard to get a few bits and pieces for my battered up old mini. I always fancied an electric window squirter (rather than the old push button) and was overjoyed to find an Austin Alegro with the wiper mechanism intact (even better was that somone had already removed the bonnet so access was easy). I carefully removed the wiper mechanism, the water bottle, the electrics (which were removed much less carefully). I also remembered my mums Allegro had a broken tail light so I removed this as well. It was only after we had paid for the bits and we were leaving the scrap yard that we noticed a man was pushing a bonnet into the back seat and then he got in and drove away ......

Big oops ... I hate to think what happened the next time it rained .... So big apologies to whoever owned an Allegro and suddenly found they had no wipers!!!

Ivan

aliasojo

Tut tut Ivan, surely you should have given the man his bits and pieces back as soon as you realised?

raptorman

Ivan, myself and my wife are rolling around laughing at that last post. By the way, when I found those vinyl albums they were on the street outside a house and I did ask the householder if it was ok to take them to which they replied they were not theirs so 'help yourself'.

trafalgar_2

aliasojo wrote:

(Btw, the crutches are the only thing I've ever lifted and I only did that as I thought they could be recycled via the school, since they were obviously no longer fit for their original purpose.)

:rotfl:

Don't fret Aliasojo ,I don't think the police are expected on your doorstep any day soon.......they could be heading to Ivans though:D

Jay-Jay_4

If it's theft then when does it stop being theft? When the skip company come to collect your skip are they 'stealing' too? When the contents of the skip get to the tip is it still 'your' stuff? Should we all label our stuff 'IF FOUND PLEASE RETURN TO XXXXX'

If you have a look at the law you will find that 'theft' is about intent. The definintion of theft is to dishonestly appropriate property. You cannot dishonestly appropriate property if you think that ownership has been relinquished eg by finding something in a skip or bin.

If you were to inform the police that something had been taken from your bin or skip, what do you think they would do?



BTW Ivan...you are a thief!!!! :rotfl: