Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
People rooting through my bins ....
...... three separate people have been though mine and my neighbours bins today .... been noticing this has been on the increase lately in general. Anyone else noticed this ? How can we stop it happening ..? Everyone make sure you don't put any confid docs in your bins !!!!!!
Tags for Forum Posts: theft from dustbins
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Paul on
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I've seen as well, numerous times. After a hard stare and a show of the teeth, they scamper.
But perhaps these "tolerant" posters on here will prove they are not hypocrites and they do truly have a compassionate side by inviting these poor unfortuantes to house-sit in their home when they go on holiday. If thats too much trouble (not enough rooms for their extended families - even on the Haringey ladder!), maybe they can give them a set of keys so they can pop round every day to water their plants and to feed their cats...
What planet are these people on?
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Permalink Reply by Lesley G on
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Well bloody said, thank you!
Also, if some posters' hearts are bleeding for these poor people who are so desperate to survive they have to root through the bins of strangers,why don't they offer them some (un-binned) food to eat,instead of watching them scavenge through other people's rubbish!
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Permalink Reply by Anette on
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Lesley, you are the most sensible person I have come across here for a looong time! I agree with every word you're saying.
I took a photo of one of these people and posted on here a while ago, and got pretty much the same bleeding heart bollocks that you just got.
It's stealing, it's tresspassing, it's not on.
Hands up, which one of you bleeding heart'ers will actually invite them in, and give them food and clothes?
No? Didn't think so. Nuff said.
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Permalink Reply by Old-Age-Emporium(OAE) on
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Indeed, just as Liz says, ever so politely. I don't know about Lesley, but Anette as "a looong time" poster here may know that Con is no mere "bleeding heart bollocks", to coin a delightfully nordic idiom. But I'm afraid Liz-like politeness will be lost on Anette.
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Permalink Reply by Liz on
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There are no others. The only person on this thread to suggest that people may search through bins for motives other than identity theft and that dealing with them in the manner suggested may not be the best is Con. John shows understanding of Con's viewpoint and gives excellent advice on dealing with documents. I never thought to use Evernote to store them although we shred and put on the compost all valuable personal documents.
In the main, all other posters have expressed concern over this practice which is likely to become more widespread as access to public funds via the welfare system becomes more tightly squeezed. Scavenging is mainly a product of a society where little or no welfare state exists. In US cities, dumpster scavenging is widespread and everyday. People seem not to see them. However, because we are forced to keep our rubbish in our front gardens in GB rather than in communal areas, we find ourselves confronted with strangers on our private space which is alarming and upsetting. Older folks at Area Forum raised this, pointing out that fortnightly landfill has given the scavengers more time and opportunity to root through their waste. On the occasions where I've found them in our gardens, I've asked them what they are looking for. In the main, it has been clothes and small items they can sell. As one man explained, you'd be amazed what people throw away...he then very meekly put all the rubbish in the bin. Another man I watched at work, carefully removed components from a dumped TV, put the TV back exactly where he found it. When I found him once in a neighbours garden, I asked him to leave and he apologised and did so.
I have to admit my attitude changed after talking to Con about all this, however, I am entirely in sympathy with Michael's view that you decide who comes on your property and what for. So maybe the picture is bigger here. Why are people forced to scavenge in this supposedly bountiful welfare state and is it our systems of storing large amount of waste in our front garden the reason why we find scavengers in our front gardens whereas in other countries with communal waste systems, we'd be less likely to see or care about it happening as in the US?
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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In February I described an incident which suggested one reason why someone might be going though a bin.
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@Liz, soooooo.....all the other people here who are up in arms about the rest of us not wanting tramps and thieves rooting thorough our rubbish, they're not prepared to put their money where their mouths are, or where the tramps mouths are, rather?
That's my point.
It's very easy to jump down someone throat on an online forum (and I am not saying you did!) claiming to be something close to a saint. Quite another when someone's rooting through YOUR bins, and you're feeling vulnerable.
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But *my* point is that there is only *one* person who is 'up in arms about the rest of you' as you put it and that was Con whose work means that he deals with people who are on the very margins of a decent existence and who have little more than the clothes they stand up in. I also know that he speaks from a sincerely held faith and that he puts his money where his mouth is each and every day. He was simply asking that we consider how we deal with people we find in our gardens although in a rather OTT manner I will concede (talk of toffs and hate-crimes did nothing but inflame the mood of the thread). So who else needs to do it? Who are "all the other people here"?
Every one, including me, is in agreement with the basic principle that you don't want people in your front garden rooting through bins, although the manner in which you approach them will differ, depending on your confidence. I will go out and speak to them but an elderly person won't and as I said in a previous posting, this very issue was raised at Area Forum by older members of the community who I suspect see it even more further East and who feel that having rubbish lying around in bins for a fortnight encourages it.
I also pointed out that scavenging is not unique to London and that major cities across the world see it, however Britain is pretty unique in having rubbish bins in each and every front garden rather than communal bins usually around the backs or sides of dwellings. On a recent trip to the US I saw people rooting through bins daily but I didn't get the sense from the Americans I spoke to that they were threatened by it because it wasn't happening in their front gardens.
I have had people in the bins. A couple of girls I prevented taking some carpet because it was too manky and I knew they would dump it when they realised. A guy taking some scrap I'd left out for the council. A family looking for clothes. A bloke looking for things to sell. At one point, it was pretty regular. I treat each case as it comes and if I don't like the look of a situation, I will call the police but so far all have been pretty polite and not returned. I'm uncomfortable with labelling anyone 'scum' (which you didn't but another poster did) for people's stories are usually much more complex and no one grows up dreaming of spending their days wading through nappies and cat litter in the hope of a bit of scrap copper.
However, I also see the vans driving around as were mentioned in this thread which I suggest are a different kettle of fish. Some may be legit scrap metal merchants, others may be thieves who run off with people's front gates or (and on this topic my inner saintliness fails) war memorials.
Take their numbers, report them to the police. If they have licences, fine. If not, the police are pretty keen on cracking down on them.
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I doubt your target audience is going to read all that. Five words in capital letters is your best chance.
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Thanks Anette, nice to know that not everyone thinks I'm a toff capable of hate-crime, LOL
Funny, because most people would regard me as a bit of a liberal do-gooder in general.
However, I I reserve my right to report/warn off anyone coming onto my property and rifling through my stuff, in a bin or otherwise!
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