Hey, buddy -- you took it, now it's YOUR problem!

The BBQ Pit
1

In our town we have ‘regular’ trash pickup, which happens once a week, automatically, day determined by area of town you live in.

We also have ‘special’ trash pickup for items that are too large (like couches) or too heavy (chunks of concrete) or considered to require special handling due to the presence of certain elements or gases (like refrigerators & computer monitors.) To get rid of those items you have to call up and get on the list for a special pickup. Given they seem to only man that phone line an hour or two a day, and often you soonest you can get on the list is three weeks from your call, this is rather a hassle.

We also have an accepted ethos that when you put something out at the end of your driveway you are declaring a lack of interest in it, and any passerby with a yen for such item is free to take it away.

All this is well and good, and I accept the system.
But some of you idiots are forgetting the necessary corollary: Once you adopt one of these discards, it’s YOUR baby. No fair dumping it back on the original owner if you change your mind.

Near the middle of January our basement dehumidifier died. This item qualified for Special pickup in spades: it’s very heavy (I can barely budge it even when dragging it along on its side like a sled) AND it originally contained freon. I say originally, because I think it all escaped through the hole in the pump, which is why it’s dead and being disposed of, but the rules say, anything that used to have freon must go to Special pickup.

So I make many calls over a week, whenever I remember, and eventually am granted a slot: Feb. 5. On Feb. 4th I haul the dehumidifier to the end of our driveway. On Feb. 5th I wake up to discover someone has adopted the thing. (As in, it’s gone, but the trash people didn’t take it – the trash truck is noisy and always wakes me.) Fine. One less item in the dump if you’re willing to pay to fix it.

Feb. 6th I wake up to find the damn dehumidifier back at the end of my driveway.

YOU CAN’T DO THAT! It’s against the rules! <sigh> I drag the monster back into my garage and start over.

Again I do the multi-calls, and am put back on the list, this time for Feb. 24th. Again I haul the monster down to the end of the driveway the night before. This time I lean a cardboard sign against it: Broken, the sign says on the first line, in nice big black letters. No freon!, the sign says on the second line. You don’t want it! the sign says on the last line, with the exclamation point bolded and with little ‘rays’ coming off it for emphasis.

Again I wake up to find some has beaten the Trash People to my defunct dehumidifier.

I curse. I cross my fingers, I say invocations to the God of Trash: Let whoever took it have some genuine use for it. A plant stand, maybe. An anchor. Whatever. Just don’t bring it back when you discover the sign was telling the truth about it not working. The morning of Feb. 25 dawns. In fear and trepidation I look out the window: no dehumidifier, hallelujah!

So this morning I pop my shades up, cheerily intent on discovering what the weather is like…and what horrible sight strikes my eyes??? Arrrrrrghh! The triply-damned dehumidifier is not only back, but it’s sitting in the exact middle of my driveway so I can’t even go to work until I move it. :frowning:

This is so NOT FAIR.

:frowning:

2

I have no words! People can be superbly stupid. I’m sorry, StarvingButStrong. I’ll keep my fingers crossed for next time. Can you take a vacation day or something to baby-sit the thing until the trash guys take it? That would suck, too, I know.

3

Hey,

This is a beautiful story of one dehumidifier who so loves it’s owner that it travels home through untold perils again and again. Kind of like The Incredible Journey but with a dehumidifier.

4

I’m not easy to infuriate, but this would drive me absolutely batshit. I’d set up a lawnchair next to the thing, and wait up all night before the appointed special pickup day, menacingly waving a crowbar.

5

No, use the crowbar to break it up and dispose of the pieces one at a time in your regular trash. This will have the side effect of venting your anger.

6

So far, that’s never happened to me. We do end up with a good 50% of our stuff removed before the trash people ever arrive. Last time I emailed for a bulk trash pickup, I asked them to remind the treasure hunters to keep things neat, since the previous time, they scattered the stuff around quite a bit. The treasure hunters were very courteous about it after that reminder. One guy even came to the door asking if he could have the doors we laid out. I’m not certain if people contact the city and find out where the bulk trash is, but I’ve noticed people driving up to my neighbors in trucks specifically to pick up trash and carrying off boards and the like. It would make sense if the addresses are listed somewhere, especially since we have to tell them what’s in the trash. We had a big, heavy and extremely ugly cast-iron bathtub removed within days of putting our last batch of bulk trash out, and it was actually kind of hidden by the other trash.

7

Damn that sucks. Around our parts, we have select times a year where you’re allowed to dispose of such items. It’s not unkown for people to drive around and inspect this stuff for worthiness, I in fact once got a very nice bookcase this way. That said, I’d tape a large note expalining what’s wrong with the the dehumidifier on it, that may keep someone from dragging it off, only to return it when they discover it’s broken.

8

And any leftover freon.

9

Put right in the middle of your driveway, even after the sign?

Someone’s messing with you. Maybe a more creative sign…“Humidifier broken after homeless man with syphilis peed on it?” “Humidifier broken after colicky baby vomited on it?”

10

We do this in our neighborhood. I’ve never had an item returned but my neighbor has. We have community yard sales twice a year and twice she tried to get rid of her old bedroom furniture but failed. Finally she gave up and put the chest out by the trash, of course by dawn someone had taken it. The next day it was back and in one of the drawers was a note “your dog chewed on this so it’s really just trash”. I had no idea the junkers were so picky. Of course when we got rid of our old computer desk someone picked it up before we were able to get the drawers and legs out with it. A few hours later a woman came to the door asking for these items, my husband made her give him $3 before he handed them over. But you gotta love the junkers, who else would take all my crap away before the neighbors see how tacky my stuff really is?

11

This reminds me of a time that I was moving shortly after my wedding and , of course, Mrs BD was condemning most of my cool old bachelor furniture to the trash heap.

There was a lot of furniture to throw out and we decided to put a few pieces each week to the curb to avoid having the trash haulers declare a special pickup for large items and quantities.

Apparently our plan was discovered by the local fix-it-shop trash cruisers and after the first week I would notice one or two pickup trucks parked down the street waiting for me to put out the trash,. No biggy. I was somewhat happy to see that my furniture was prized by someone even if it was despised by Mrs. BD.

But one trash-day morning I had a pair of matching chairs to put out. I was pretty proud of them becuase they were the only pre-wedding furniture I owned that actually matched. I carried one chair out to the curb and, while I was going back to the garage to get the other one, pickup number one swooped in and grabbed the chair. The guy was only 20 feet from me when I yelled, “Hey Wait” to him. I wanted him stay there so I could bring him the other chair. He probably thought that I *didn’t * want him to take the chair when actually I wanted to make sure that he took both of them. He bolted out of there with that one chair so quickly and it probably occurred to him too late what it meant when I yelled, “I have another one!”

So the next guy got the second chair. Funny thing is, he too refused to hang around and see if anything else was available even though I yelled to him that I had more if he wanted it. I guess actually talking to the owner is a no-no for these guys.

Bubba

12

Here, StarvingButStrong, I need you to sign this release saying I’m free to make this story into a touching and classic film for children … “Danny the Littlest Dehumidifier.”

13

Well, normally I wouldn’t mention this, but seeing as it has happened twice, here you go. Technically the person or persons doing this could be guilty of breaking one or more laws. Theft, illegal dumping, and trespassing are some of the possibilities. If you put out the dehumidifier again and it gets taken again, I would consider the possibility that it has been the same person every time and contact local authorities to see what laws may apply. If someone wants to act like an idiot over and over, let him accept the consequences.

14

I have an easy solution for you, if you really want to get rid of it and you think someone’s messing with you.

Don’t put it out the night before, put it out the morning of. It can’t be nearly as inconvenient as finding it returned twice in your driveway after scheduled pick-up day.

15

I’m kind of reminded of The Brave Little Toaster.

16

Use red spray paint to write “doesn’t work: trash” on it. If somebody still takes it (and returns it) after that, they’re messing with you, and it’s time to set up a camcorder.

17

Put a big “MADE IN FRANCE” sign on it. That should keep the more patriotic scavengers away.

18

Are you sure you’ve got the right book in mind? 'Cause I keep thinking of ‘Pet Sematary’, where things come back WRONG. God knows what mischief an evil dehumidifier can get up to…

Be my guest. Just stick me into the Author’s Appreciation note. :slight_smile:

(Consider the ‘Pet Sematary’ approach, though. I think Horror movies make more money than kid’s books.)

Now this has possibilities. How about:

“Warning! Infested with venous spiders”?

“Danger! Black Mold!” ?
But then, the official trash people might refuse to touch it, too. :frowning:

Yes, I’m afraid you’re right. Afraid, because I utterly loathe having to get up early on days I don’t need to be in to work until late. Still, to be rid of the Evil Dehumidifier, a woman must do what a woman must do.

(This is, bat her eyes at her hubby and make extragant bedroom promises…)

19

My husband and I were cleaning out our house when we were getting ready to sell it. We lived in a somewhat questionable neighborhood at the time. Apparently, at one time, it had been a quiet little neighborhood, but as the town grew and as time went by, the original owners all died or moved off and new people started moving in. His mom had bought the house probably 30-something years prior to this time, and so it also had 30-something years worth of accumulated stuff in it. We gave as much as we could to goodwill, and then got to a shed in the backyard. The stuff in there was pretty funky, the shed wasn’t the greatest and wasn’t sealed very well, so we’d pull out boxes and find mice and various bugs. We decided to just trash all of that stuff, and dragged it all out to the curb. As we were dragging more stuff around the corner, we noticed some people digging through the trashcans and boxes, pulling stuff out. Whatever.
Then, we took an old computer desk out and it was snatched up in a matter of minutes.
A few days later, we saw the computer desk, which had taken probably 20+ years of use with no problems, tossed out on the curb in front of a house a few houses down from ours. The entire side was broken, as though something really heavy was sat (or sat) on that side of the desk and just bent the legs off. Then, about a week later, we saw that those people had opened up a little rummage sale business in their front yard, selling off all of the buggy crap from our shed/trash.
Again, whatever. The only thing that bothered me was that they dug through our trash and scattered crap all over the yard, and we were warned because of it, and they started going through our trash every week, even when it was just normal household garbage.

20

Expanding a bit on what theR said, I would keep an eye out for the junkers…get their license plate number (if you can) and as soon as they bring it back call the cops on them for illegal dumping.

I would be seriously pissed if some ass took that junk and then had the audacity to actually bring it back.