Just stopped someone taking something from a neighbours skip - was I foolish

[TakeTheEgg]

Neighbours skip on their front drive, so not on the road. They have an ongoing house renovation that has literally been going on for years - not sure this is relevant, but anyway, they aren't actually living in the property but this isn't obvious to anyone who doesn't know/live in our road iyswim?

We live in a small cul de sac - so it's obvious when vans are here when they shouldnt be. There are a LOT of car thefts going on at the moment so we are increasingly suspicious of any unfamiliar vans in the road at the moment.

Anyway ... I'm sitting in my living room with blinds still down when I hear a van outside. I look outside to see someone going thru neighbours skip, so I open my door and the guy looks up at me quite startled to see me standing there. I just said that I didn't think he should be taking stuff from the skip - he replied with "why not, it's just a bit of metal?". I then said that he really should be asking the property owner first. He looked a bit peed off with me, but did get back in his van and drive off back down the road.

I've achieved nothing have I? Except pee off someone who will probably come back and let down my tyres or something probably worse!

I managed to take a photo of the van and next door have cctv which will probably have captured some of this.

Full disclosure, I woke up with a blinding headache and am mad with the world.

I should have just kept my nose out if it this morning though, shouldn't I?

What a sticky beak you are!

Poor bloke was taking away something that has been thrown out!

It frees up skip space and it’s already in the skip, I don’t see an issue

So you'd rather that the stuff in the skip went to landfill than got repurposed?

I really do not understand some people.

What's the big deal? It all ends up in the tip anyway.

When we had skips I would have been happy for stuff to be taken out as it would free up space for more of my own junk to go in. If you'd caught him putting stuff in that would be a totally different matter

Skips are done by weight so I'm a small way he was helping, shouldn't have been poking about on the drive but yeah yabu. Hope the head feels better.

It's always been a bit of a relief to us when our skips have been scavenged by those looking for scrap metal as it makes space for new rubbish - and given the costs of skips now it's even more welcome.

It frees up skip space and possibly money for the person renting it. You should have kept out of it.

have you never had people looking for scrap metal in your street before? It’s a regular occurrence here - van drives down the road looks for metal and takes what’s there, people purposely leave it out knowing it will get taken. It’s a skip, it’s getting thrown out anyway and it’s likely that mans lively hood. Why did you feel the need to do that? It’s not your skip??

Strange Woman.

When we had a skip I hoped people would take stuff, it was filling it with their stuff which worried me, I was like a demon monitoring it.

YABU. If it is in the skip, it is not wanted. No harm in someone trying to use someone else's rubbish.

I’d be delighted if people took something from a skip, better than wasting it. I thought the issue was other people filling it.

You were trying to help, don’t be too hard on yourself. Yes now you’re reflecting, maybe you should have left it, but you were coming from a looking out for your neighbour place, you’ll think differently next time!

OP, we had a skip for ages. I was always delighted when people took stuff out of it, as freed up some space.

Jesus. He’s probably a scrapper who makes his living from getting metal out of skips.

That said, you’d hate me. My marble counters in my bathroom… came from a skip. The utilityware furniture in our bedroom… came from a skip. The ladderax in our living room… came from a skip. halabala armchairs… skip. Magimix… skip. Eames chairs… skip.

If you’d interrupted me on a good skip dive we would have had a Frank exchange of views.

My sofa, coffee table, 3 light fittings and the majority of my kids toys came out of skips. What was he doing wrong?
When I had a skip I was far more worried about people dumping rubbish in it than taking what I didn't want.

I think you should have probably kept your nose out, sorry. It's not likely anything will come of it, so no harm done.

Yes, yes. You're all right, of course. I know this. The moment I closed my door I felt terrible.

Not my business at all.

I was wrong. Completely wrong.

OP, have a couple of paracetamols, tea and your favourite biscuits.
Things will get better. 😂

Don't worry about the man either. There's other skips on the streets.

This.

We’re always told to ask first as it’s theft otherwise. Maybe if you see the owners you could ask them to write a sign if they’re willing for people to take bits.

Skiprat
That's what we get called round here 😂
My brother used to skip dive and then do a car boot to pay for his holidays! Even I thought that was a bit much 😂

It's good if folks take stuff from a skip! It's better that they sell/use rather than going to landfill.
I leave stuff I don't want next to the skip in the hope that someone will take and reuse.
Actually around here, people put things they don't want outside their houses at the weekend. I've had candles, cake tins, books, plants

One if our cars and our driveway was damaged by some idiot rooting around in a skip on our driveway years ago, so after that I stopped people doing this on our drive. 😬