Theft- trash collection bin

[lougoofy]

Have any of you ever had a trash collection bin stolen from on the street or in the alley?

 

[Justsyd2]

No, but when it's windy, I've seen them blowing down the street! Have you looked for it? It may have blown away.

 

[worm761]

Yes I did. I was beyond shocked and cannot imagine why someone would want a garbage can. We have those big cans and the trucks automatically dump them. It was explained that people steal them to get free garbage pick up. Makes no sense to me still since it is all part of the water bill.

 

[3disAddicts]

Yes, happened to us too. We were thinking that maybe someone had taken it for their lawn and leaf debris removal since that too is included in property taxes in our city. However, you have to purchase your own can for that particular service.

 

[Duckyiam71]

I live in El Paso TX and it gets very windy here. One of ours blew away and they are issued by the city. I called to get a new one and was told to call the police. I seriously had to call the police and file a report. I was told they are expensive($45). They take their trash cans seriously!

 

[Tina]

I used to live on a shared driveway of five homes. We all placed our cans in the same area, so the truck only had to stop once. We had one neighbor who used to sniff all the cans after pickup before choosing one to take back to her garage. I guess she wanted the least smelly one. When we got new ones, she spray painted an "X" on hers. By the end of the year, several cans had that same "X" because when hers got too smelly, she would grab a different one and mark it with a new color.

 

[Cruise]

I know some cities charge residents for extra bins over and beyond what they consider reasonable. Could be that someone had extra trash and doesn't want to pay for an extra bin.

 

[lougoofy]

Yes I did. I was beyond shocked and cannot imagine why someone would want a garbage can. We have those big cans and the trucks automatically dump them. It was explained that people steal them to get free garbage pick up. Makes no sense to me still since it is all part of the water bill.

Part of city livin' I guess. Ours isn't paid through water bill but property taxes or some-how.

 

[lougoofy]

i used to live on a shared driveway of five homes. We all placed our cans in the same area, so the truck only had to stop once. We had one neighbor who used to sniff all the cans after pickup before choosing one to take back to her garage. I guess she wanted the least smelly one. When we got new ones, she spray painted an "x" on hers. By the end of the year, several cans had that same "x" because when hers got too smelly, she would grab a different one and mark it with a new color.

lol

 

[Blue.Fairy2]

Yes I did. I was beyond shocked and cannot imagine why someone would want a garbage can. We have those big cans and the trucks automatically dump them. It was explained that people steal them to get free garbage pick up. Makes no sense to me still since it is all part of the water bill.

Because they did not want to buy a new or second one. Does your can have a serial number on it/them?

Sad. Here if you have one break they will replace it once but after that you must purchase a new one.

 

[lougoofy]

Part of city livin' I guess. Ours isn't paid through water bill but property taxes or some-how.

City gov'ment doesn't have any bins now. It will be 4-8 weeks before I get one that's ordered.

 

[justintime]

I haven't had mine personally stolen, but I witnessed someone elses being stolen. We have to put our recycles out every other week. Well on recycling day I was driving down the street and further up road I saw someone pull over to the side of the road, dump all of recycling onto the ground, throw the two recycling containers (a little smaller than the typical outdoor trash can) into the back of their truck and take off. They drove in the opposite direction of the way I was going, so I didn't get their license plate or anything or I would have reported them, but I was just stunned that someone would actully steal a trash can.

 

[gardengalB4]

Yep-unfortunately we had 2 stolen.One was newer & the other was in good shape.Our bags were on the ground where the trashcans should have been....
I "uglified " & spray painted our name & address on the new cans I bought...
it really ticked me off-how bad off are you when you have to steal someone else's trashcans?!
Perhaps this was the same group of people that were smashing the mailboxes?

 

[Planogirl]

Ours was and then was returned a few weeks later. Now we have two.

 

[cheermom1]

no I have never heard of such a thing...although along the same lines when it is windy and the cans blow around customer will call the trash company and complain that the guy that picked up their trash threw their trash can in the street and they had to go get it...

 

[sharlon]

no I have never heard of such a thing...although along the same lines when it is windy and the cans blow around customer will call the trash company and complain that the guy that picked up their trash threw their trash can in the street and they had to go get it...

YEP! DH runs a waste hauling company and what cheermom1 describes happens all the time. Also, we live in the mountains, so we get lots of high winds. Cans will get blown in the street and every once in a while, they will get hit by a car. The drivers then call in and want the trash hauler to pay for the damage to the car, because they couldn't avoid the can.

As for stolen cans, that happens more than you would think. People will actually call in and say that the garbagemen must have thrown away or stolen the cans. Trust me, the last people that want to steal a garbage can are garbagemen.

 

[cheermom1]

YEP! DH runs a waste hauling company and what cheermom1 describes happens all the time. Also, we live in the mountains, so we get lots of high winds. Cans will get blown in the street and every once in a while, they will get hit by a car. The drivers then call in and want the trash hauler to pay for the damage to the car, because they couldn't avoid the can.

As for stolen cans, that happens more than you would think. People will actually call in and say that the garbagemen must have thrown away or stolen the cans. Trust me, the last people that want to steal a garbage can are garbagemen.

YEP!!! trust me we don;t need another trash can...

 

[teacherlisa1978]

We thought ours had been stolen then I remembered that a house on the next block with the same # as us and sane street name (only we are Ave and they're Place) was just sold. I figured our cans got picked up instead of ours and I was right. Kind of a hassle to get it straightened out.

 

[clh2]

We have our name spray painted on all garbage cans, lids and recycle bin.

Haven't had a problem since then....

(DH received a stencil with our last name on it for Father's Day about 5 years ago...)

 

[irishbosoxfan]

We had just moved and had to buy our own cans so we went to the hardware store and bought two big ones. Two weeks later one of them was stolen from our front yard on trash day. I thought it had just blown away but it wasn't anywhere to be found and my neighbors still had theirs sitting in their front yards.

The next week on the night before trash day I took a walk around the neighborhood and found my can on the next street over. Boy was I mad! So the next night after the trashmen emptied it I went and stole it back.

I then went back to the hardware store and bought 2 long lengths of chain and 2 padlocks and on trash day I would put them out and lock them up to the mailbox which was encased in concrete--they weren't stolen again.