# Help me understand why people steal my laundry basket? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 7, 2012, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-why-people-steal-my-laundry-basket/614993 "2012-03-07T01:20:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2012, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-why-people-steal-my-laundry-basket/614993/1 "2012-03-07T01:20:09Z")
I’ve lived in this apartment complex for 7 months. I’ve had an empty laundry basket stolen from the community laundry room twice since I’ve been here. Both times, I was away from the laundry room for a few hours. One time was a Sunday afternoon when I got involved watching a game and came back to the laundry room after 3 hours. The second time was a Sunday where I fell asleep watching tv and went back to the laundry room after about 4 hours. OK, maybe I understand ‘borrowing’ the laundry basket if you brought a shitload of laundry in garbage bags and needed something more convenient to carry it back to your apartment. But why not return it soon and not have the bad karma? They sell laundry baskets at the grocery store across the street for $3. ---
**Author:** ![moejoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@moejoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moejoe)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2012, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-why-people-steal-my-laundry-basket/614993/2 "2012-03-07T01:33:13Z")
Well hey, free laundry basket. Score! ---
**Author:** ![Motorgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e36b37/32.png) [@Motorgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Motorgirl)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2012, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-why-people-steal-my-laundry-basket/614993/3 "2012-03-07T01:35:05Z")
Stop pimpin’ your laundry basket and people won’t covet it! ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2012, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-why-people-steal-my-laundry-basket/614993/4 "2012-03-07T01:39:24Z")
Perhaps it’s a passive-agressive way of punishing you for abandoning your laundry in a a machine, tying it up for hours? ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2012, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-why-people-steal-my-laundry-basket/614993/5 "2012-03-07T01:44:07Z")
'Cause some people are assholes. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2012, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-why-people-steal-my-laundry-basket/614993/6 "2012-03-07T01:50:49Z")
[QUOTE=Seinfeld] George: I don’t understand why people buy umbrellas. They have baskets full of them for free in restaurants. Jerry: Those are _other people’s_ umbrellas George. [/QUOTE] Maybe it’s the Georage Constanzas of the world thinking “hey, free laundry basket”. ---
**Author:** ![lisiate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f05b48/32.png) [@lisiate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisiate)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2012, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-why-people-steal-my-laundry-basket/614993/7 "2012-03-07T01:55:39Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > 'Cause some people are assholes. This. Estimates vary as to the exact percentage but I’ve seen figures ranging from 10% to 20%, which feels about right to me. That’s right somewhere between 1 in 10 and 1 in 5 of all the people you come across are assholes plain and simple. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2012, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-why-people-steal-my-laundry-basket/614993/8 "2012-03-07T01:59:53Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > Perhaps it’s a passive-agressive way of punishing you for abandoning your laundry in a a machine, tying it up for hours? Nope, that wouldn’t be it. The complex that I’m in has a lot of apartments in my section under renovation and vacant. There is never a wait for a machine. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2012, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-why-people-steal-my-laundry-basket/614993/9 "2012-03-07T02:10:26Z")
Personally, I bring the laundry basket back to my apartment after I load the washer. I hand carry the clothes to the dryer, and then bring the basket back at the end of the dryer cycle. ---
**Author:** ![conurepete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a88e57/32.png) [@conurepete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/conurepete)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2012, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-why-people-steal-my-laundry-basket/614993/10 "2012-03-07T02:45:58Z")
Last year, I washed out the cat box with a garden hose, then left it to dry on the back lawn while I washed my hands. When I went to go get it, it had vanished. Somewhere out there is a poor bastard whose life is so wretched they had steal a used cat box. Maybe things are looking up and they are upgrading to laundry baskets. ---
**Author:** ![Alice\_The\_Goon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Alice\_The\_Goon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alice_The_Goon)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2012, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-why-people-steal-my-laundry-basket/614993/11 "2012-03-07T03:41:52Z")
'Cuz those motherfuckers will steal anything that’s not nailed down, and even then, if they have a crowbar. You haven’t noticed this yet? ---
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2012, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-why-people-steal-my-laundry-basket/614993/12 "2012-03-07T04:00:59Z")
It’d because you’re one of those latte drinking, SUV driving, laundry basket owning yuppie types and they’re getting back at you. ---
**Author:** ![bubba\_jr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e95f7d/32.png) [@bubba\_jr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bubba_jr)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2012, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-why-people-steal-my-laundry-basket/614993/13 "2012-03-07T04:18:48Z")
Dumbass, if you are going to leave anything that has a least a 4 cent value in a public place for more than 3 seconds, you need to put a sign on it… “FREE”. Nobody will touch it, except an honest person, who actually believes it is ‘free’, the thieves won’t steal it because they won’t think they are stealing anything. Opposite, if you have some piece of garbage to get rid of, put it by the curb and put “free” on it, it will sit there forever. Put a price tag on it and leave it overnight, it’ll be gone the next morning. “I’m sorry for your loss”… at least they didn’t steal your beer… or your underwear. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2012, 9:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-why-people-steal-my-laundry-basket/614993/14 "2012-03-07T09:34:50Z")
You know those cardboard boxes by every copy machine that 10 reams of copy paper come in? Hie thee to your friendly neighborhood copy shoppe and get a few empty boxes like that. That’s what I use for my laundry basket. How fancy-schmancy do you need to be? I’ve never had one stolen yet. (Well… There was that one time I went out to an actual laundromat, and when I had my back turned, the attendant threw it away.) Okay, maybe I’ve never had one stolen because, like **Dewey Finn** above, I don’t actually leave my precious cardboard box in the laundry room. Someday soon, I may have to _live_ in that box. ETA: Anyway, they’re free and there are always plenty more where that one came from, and you can always keep several spares around. ---
**Author:** ![pullin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c57346/32.png) [@pullin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pullin)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2012, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-why-people-steal-my-laundry-basket/614993/15 "2012-03-07T11:19:05Z")
Maybe you could use the “Disney” trick to keep people from making off with your stuff. The Disney method is used by those with young children to keep their strollers from disappearing while on a ride at the park. (Parks often provide rental strollers that are much larger than what would normally fit on a plane. They tend to wander off while parents and toddlers are in a show or ride). Tools needed: 1. Clean disposable diaper 2. Ziploc bag 3. Soda pop (dark-colored, Coke, Pepsi, etc.) Place diaper in ziploc bag. Pour in some of the Coke. Seal bag. Drink remaining soda pop. Now leave the sodden, brown disgusting diaper on/in the object you want left alone. Works every time. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2012, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-why-people-steal-my-laundry-basket/614993/16 "2012-03-07T14:08:47Z")
> [@dalej42](#): > > They sell laundry baskets at the grocery store across the street for $3. That would be $3 well spent to a normal honest person who needed a laundry basket. To the self-centered thieving scum who have taken yours, that’s not even on their radar. “I can steal this” is about as far as their thinking goes. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2012, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-why-people-steal-my-laundry-basket/614993/17 "2012-03-07T15:07:08Z")
Two things: 1 If this thread goes on long enough, someone will come in to defend stealing laundry baskets; and 2. It was probably the same household that stole both baskets, in my neighborhood, I’ve recently noticed that most of the bullshit comes from one house. Most of the litter, most of the vandalism, most of the times people are being too loud late at night, most of the bullshit all comes from the same set of assholes. It really only takes a small percentage of a population to make life a little crappier for al of us. ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2012, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-why-people-steal-my-laundry-basket/614993/18 "2012-03-07T15:09:55Z")
How about putting a tag on the basket? ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2012, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-why-people-steal-my-laundry-basket/614993/19 "2012-03-07T15:17:32Z")
Note that if my laundry basket was stolen from the laundry room, I’d wonder how safe my clothes were, and I might have to start waiting there for the wash and dry cycles to complete. (Fortunately, it’s not that bad in my building so I can go back to my apartment, although I try to be back just as the cycles are ending.) ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2012, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-why-people-steal-my-laundry-basket/614993/20 "2012-03-07T18:14:19Z")
It sucks, but people suck. I don’t even trust people not to steal my clothes, much less the basket. When I lived in places with communal laundry, I always stayed in the laundry room with my stuff. Bring a book or your preferred entertainment device (Kindle, cell phone, etch-a-sketch, etc). Also, leaving laundry sitting in a machine for more than a couple minutes can induce irrational rage in passers-by. It’s a poorly-understood but well-documented phenomenon. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-why-people-steal-my-laundry-basket/614993.md?page=2)