trash can thief

[yellowkettle.livejournal.com]

 So, our nice big new trash can was stolen (!?!) yesterday on Winslow Ave. sometime after the trash was picked up. Is this a common problem? Any good solutions?  Anyone see *crosses fingers* the trash can bandit making off with it yesterday?

Comments

[geekpixie.livejournal.com]

It may have blown away, it's been rather windy lately, otherwise, I'd recommend spray painting it with your street number, that's really the only thing you can do, unless you feel like waiting around to bring in your can after trash is collected, and not many people have that option :)

[whaler.livejournal.com]

Yeah yesterday was really windy.

[geekpixie.livejournal.com]

Apparently March is in like a lion and out like another lion this year...

[yellowkettle.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, I don't think it was wind :/

My husband left /very/ shortly after trash pick-up and discovered it was already gone, and he looked all over the block for it. Lame...

[geekpixie.livejournal.com]

Then definitely spray paint the next one, and I'm sorry that people sometimes suck! It must have been an awfully nice trash can ;)

[secretlyironic.livejournal.com]

I agree.

Ours got stolen once... but it had just migrated about a block or so up the street. It eventually found its way home, although not until after I'd bought new ones and painted the numbers on them. Apparently sometimes kids will think it's a great idea to take them, then change their minds and abandon them a bit away. Or just play pranks by moving them around.

[dmcgettrick.livejournal.com]

solution - Don't buy a nice metal trash can...get a cheapo plastic one that nobody cares enough about to steal.

[badseed1980.livejournal.com]

I got three or four of those stolen. Plus about the same number of (free) recycling bins.

[tamalinn.livejournal.com]

yeah, we had a recycling bin stolen. quel pain in the butt.

[badseed1980.livejournal.com]

VERY common problem. Even having your address on it doesn't stop it from happening. I had about 3 or 4 trash cans stolen while I lived on Highland Road. Really, you have to bring them in before you go to work if you can, because all too often leaving them until you get home means they won't be there anymore.

Recycling bins? Even worse.

Frankly, it kind of pisses me off that the only thing that seems to have stopped it for me was moving out of the Davis area.

[koshmom.livejournal.com]

"leaving them until you get home means they won't be there anymore"..

Sounds like a wonderful way to ensure that you never have to bring the trash can in! Let someone else do it!(grin).

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

I swear, people will steal anything. What, are they going to sell it for $1's worth of crack? Sorry that happened to you.

[talonvaki.livejournal.com]

My garbage can was stolen about two weeks after I bought it, despite being pained all over with my address on the lid and the can. I gave up and just used garbage bags. This was before we had to put trash in cans.

After they became a requirement, I just used whatever cans survived that other people in my building. I wasn't going to spend good money on disappearing trash cans.

[koshmom.livejournal.com]

Perhaps what you need to buy are old decrepit plastic trash cans, complete with holes on the bottom and smelly to the max. Betcha noone will steal those!

I have two that fit that picture. Well, they're not that smelly, but it doesn't take much work to fix that part of the equation. Where I live they don't steal cans. I've been considering getting a really nice, lid-attached one on wheels. Perhaps we can make a deal?

[moireach.livejournal.com]

Sorry for the obvious suggestion, but are you sure your neighbors just didn't accidentally grab it? Mine "steal" our recycling bin by mistake every few weeks and I just have to go get it.

[maelithil.livejournal.com]

They just stole the wheels and lid of mine, which makes taking out the trash even more of a pain in the ass than it's supposed to be.

[coeceo.livejournal.com]

oh man, thats cruel.

[whitebird.livejournal.com]

Wow, that sucks. :/ Did they leave it on a stack of pizza boxes?

[yellowkettle.livejournal.com]

Thanks for all the tips and solidarity, folks. I didn't know this was so common, and who knows -- maybe it'll turn up.

[blyssfulchaos.livejournal.com]

we got a nice new plastic garbage can and every time i go down to take the garbage out, my landlords have filled it with yard waste.

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

How big is your building (how many units)?

[laryu.livejournal.com]

We had one stolen two years ago, and it wasn't even garbage day. Someone went up my driveway, opened a garbage can, took two bags of garbage out (!), and left with the can.

[yakshaver.livejournal.com]

Ok, that takes some kind of prize. Sheesh.

[pearlythebunny.livejournal.com]

Whenever my trash can disappears, I just ask the next-door neighbors if they've seen it. Most often, they have put the can under their back porch. So I go over and haul the thing home.

[eighthman.livejournal.com]

I'd ask DPW. Just yesterday morning I noticed a couple of trash cans down the block in the street rolling around in the street in the wind. A while later, I noticed a DPW pickup truck drive down the street with an old TV in it AND a couple of trash barrels that looked familiar. I looked again, and sure enough, those barrels weren't in the street anymore. So, I'm guessing that most "stolen" barrels are ones that the city has picked up because they are in the road.

Yeah, the gold-plated one we had was stolen too!

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

Those bastards! :)

[ratatosk.livejournal.com]

Yes, paint it with your street number, except do it in bright pink.

I can attest that this works with recycling bins.

[john-vincent.livejournal.com]

And 99% of the time, people will choose to place things in a storage solution, such as drawers, cupboards and filing systems.
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