News Flash: Garbage Thieves At Large
Tonight I was out having a cigarette and wandering my yard when a guy and a girl walk past my house on the side street. Nothing really out of the ordinary. My side and back yard have a privacy fence around it and though you can see through the slats, most people don't notice much of whats going on in my yard. I started checking out the flower bed towards the back part of my yard and I saw that they had started walking up the ally behind my property. I saw them walk almost past my drive way and I was almost done with my cigarette, so I started walking back to the house. Then I heard a bag being drug back towards the street and I turned back towards the driveway wondering where the hell they suddenly had gotten a bag. How odd.
I should also mention at this point that Thursday is the night we put out garbage in my neighborhood for pick up sometime Friday morning. Curious, I started walking down the driveway when I heard them ditch what ever they had and take off running. Then I notice that one of my two bags of garbage (in the lovely green city garbage bags) was missing. The fuckers had stolen my garbage. I found where they had drug and ditched my garbage and brought both bags back to my house and I will put them back out tomorrow morning.
Who the hell steals someone else's garbage?? Funny enough, this is not the first time this has happened to me. About five years ago at a house where I rented the main floor apartment, I noticed one summer that every garbage pick up morning, my bag of garbage was missing when the other renters garbage bag was still there and everyone else along the ally still had their bags out waiting for pick up. Huh? I watched this happen for about a month, before I called the city to see if they could help me with this. As soon as I noticed this happening, I started making sure that anything that had any personal information on it was not put in my regular garbage and was disposed through another means. I really hated having to put serious thought into what I was putting into my garbage beyond, is this recyclable? It's my garbage for fucks sake, I don't want to analyse it!
The lady who answered the phone at the refuse department did an amazing job trying to not to laugh and keep a business like tone, until I said, I know this is weird and also funny so I don't care if you laugh...I laugh about it, too. She then bust out laughing and let me know it one of the most unusual calls she's ever received working for the refuse department. But, she passed the info on and a very stumped gentleman called me back from the city, not really sure how they could help me out. We went over all the details to confirm 1. I was not crazy. 2. My garbage was really being stolen purposely. Apparently, people are so cheap that instead of buying the city garbage bags, they will steal someone else's bags full of garbage, dump it out, then use it for their garbage. Since we hadn't noticed piles of dumped garbage in my neighborhood, they decided that for what ever reason, someone was really taking my garbage for their own purposes. How creepy is that?
I lived alone at the time and kept some pretty odd hours, so it really weirded me out that someone was stealing my garbage and possibly going through it. Was my garbage just better than the neighbors. I wouldn't think so, I was really scraping pennies back then (more than I am now anyway)so it's not like I was throwing away Picasso's or anything. After a few weeks, I started looking for weird shit to put in my garbage, just to fuck with them if they were actually digging through the bags.
The only thing they could think of was having my ally patrolled on my garbage pick up nights to see if they could catch the thief. There was an overflow parking lot for a nearby office building that was rarely used, so sometimes an officer would hang out their doing paperwork on my garbage pick up nights. I wonder how important the officer that was assigned to watch my garbage felt. I bet it was high on his list of accomplishments as an officer for the St. Cloud PD. They never figured out who was taking my garbage or why, and eventually I wasn't so weirded out about the whole situation. I was actually fairly impressed at how seriously the people at the city offices took my stolen garbage. The guy at the refuse department would call fairly often following up on the situation and was putting an honest effort into figuring out this situation.
This had better be a fluke or one of the above mentioned people who won't pay for their own city garbage bags. I haven't separated my garbage beyond the normal don't throw away something with my social security number, etc. on it with out shredding it first in years. And I really don't want to have to start doing that again anytime soon. Besides, if I have to call the city again about my garbage being stolen, they're going to remember me.
News Flash Update:
When I made my roommate go outside so I had someone to talk to while I had yet another cigarette tonight, I was telling him the story of the attempted theft of our garbage. At some point during the conversation, he noticed that some of our recycling had been taken as well. I'm just fine with someone making off with three of the bucket type containers that used to hold cat litter, though.
M my renter came home while we where out there, and he asked if we were waiting outside to remind him to take out his garbage tonight (he keeps forgetting what night it goes out), I laughed and told him I was waiting to warn him not to put out his garbage. He asked if the bag he put out earlier this week was taken, too, or if it was still there. Other bag? Ummm, must have been already taken because it's not out there. Then he made a comment about how they must be looking for his credit card number. Ahh! It made total sense then. They are looking for his garbage, not mine. He drives a pretty flashy car and because the garage still has boxes and stuff that he hasn't moved upstairs yet in it, he's been parking the car on the street. Someone must be thinking some money moved into the neighborhood and are trying to help him spend it. Nice. At least this makes a bit more sense now.
I should also mention at this point that Thursday is the night we put out garbage in my neighborhood for pick up sometime Friday morning. Curious, I started walking down the driveway when I heard them ditch what ever they had and take off running. Then I notice that one of my two bags of garbage (in the lovely green city garbage bags) was missing. The fuckers had stolen my garbage. I found where they had drug and ditched my garbage and brought both bags back to my house and I will put them back out tomorrow morning.
Who the hell steals someone else's garbage?? Funny enough, this is not the first time this has happened to me. About five years ago at a house where I rented the main floor apartment, I noticed one summer that every garbage pick up morning, my bag of garbage was missing when the other renters garbage bag was still there and everyone else along the ally still had their bags out waiting for pick up. Huh? I watched this happen for about a month, before I called the city to see if they could help me with this. As soon as I noticed this happening, I started making sure that anything that had any personal information on it was not put in my regular garbage and was disposed through another means. I really hated having to put serious thought into what I was putting into my garbage beyond, is this recyclable? It's my garbage for fucks sake, I don't want to analyse it!
The lady who answered the phone at the refuse department did an amazing job trying to not to laugh and keep a business like tone, until I said, I know this is weird and also funny so I don't care if you laugh...I laugh about it, too. She then bust out laughing and let me know it one of the most unusual calls she's ever received working for the refuse department. But, she passed the info on and a very stumped gentleman called me back from the city, not really sure how they could help me out. We went over all the details to confirm 1. I was not crazy. 2. My garbage was really being stolen purposely. Apparently, people are so cheap that instead of buying the city garbage bags, they will steal someone else's bags full of garbage, dump it out, then use it for their garbage. Since we hadn't noticed piles of dumped garbage in my neighborhood, they decided that for what ever reason, someone was really taking my garbage for their own purposes. How creepy is that?
I lived alone at the time and kept some pretty odd hours, so it really weirded me out that someone was stealing my garbage and possibly going through it. Was my garbage just better than the neighbors. I wouldn't think so, I was really scraping pennies back then (more than I am now anyway)so it's not like I was throwing away Picasso's or anything. After a few weeks, I started looking for weird shit to put in my garbage, just to fuck with them if they were actually digging through the bags.
The only thing they could think of was having my ally patrolled on my garbage pick up nights to see if they could catch the thief. There was an overflow parking lot for a nearby office building that was rarely used, so sometimes an officer would hang out their doing paperwork on my garbage pick up nights. I wonder how important the officer that was assigned to watch my garbage felt. I bet it was high on his list of accomplishments as an officer for the St. Cloud PD. They never figured out who was taking my garbage or why, and eventually I wasn't so weirded out about the whole situation. I was actually fairly impressed at how seriously the people at the city offices took my stolen garbage. The guy at the refuse department would call fairly often following up on the situation and was putting an honest effort into figuring out this situation.
This had better be a fluke or one of the above mentioned people who won't pay for their own city garbage bags. I haven't separated my garbage beyond the normal don't throw away something with my social security number, etc. on it with out shredding it first in years. And I really don't want to have to start doing that again anytime soon. Besides, if I have to call the city again about my garbage being stolen, they're going to remember me.
News Flash Update:
When I made my roommate go outside so I had someone to talk to while I had yet another cigarette tonight, I was telling him the story of the attempted theft of our garbage. At some point during the conversation, he noticed that some of our recycling had been taken as well. I'm just fine with someone making off with three of the bucket type containers that used to hold cat litter, though.
M my renter came home while we where out there, and he asked if we were waiting outside to remind him to take out his garbage tonight (he keeps forgetting what night it goes out), I laughed and told him I was waiting to warn him not to put out his garbage. He asked if the bag he put out earlier this week was taken, too, or if it was still there. Other bag? Ummm, must have been already taken because it's not out there. Then he made a comment about how they must be looking for his credit card number. Ahh! It made total sense then. They are looking for his garbage, not mine. He drives a pretty flashy car and because the garage still has boxes and stuff that he hasn't moved upstairs yet in it, he's been parking the car on the street. Someone must be thinking some money moved into the neighborhood and are trying to help him spend it. Nice. At least this makes a bit more sense now.