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?

My only issue with this is when they rummage around and leave my flattened and well arranged (to maximise space and usage) space used up. I don't care what you take out of it, just leave it tidy and arranged somewhat as it was.

I also hate when they tear open black bags and leave everything hanging out.

Besides that OP, I have no problem with it and yes, you interfered for no reason.
Hope your head feels better.

I think it's great when people take things from my skip. Frees up space. I usually leave metal by the side so it's easier for the scrap man to take.

When we had a slip on the drive we used to head out excitedly in the morning to see what had been pilfered as it made more space for the rest of the shit coming out the next day. It was a bonus!

You should have taken no notice. If the thing was in the skip, it was to be thrown away, so that bloke wasn't doing anything wrong.

Technically you were right, but really I would have ignored it as it is just such a tiny issue in the scheme of things.

One reason I would not want a ring doorbell to cover anyone's property but my own, or the street, is I would not want to be dragged into minor issues like something getting lifted from a neighbour's skip!

Make a pledge to yourself never to take a photo again unless a serious crime is in progress.

Just pausing to take my hat off to you. You are the queen of skips!

People have been dumping stuff in our skip.

I’d bloody love it if stuff was taken out instead.

Yeah you've been foolish

God you're a massive sticky beak. You would utterly do my nut in.
I sweat I'll never understand some people

Same here!

I saw a post like this on my Next Door app recently from a man who was utterly furious people were daring to 'thieve' from his skip. People like him and you are like anti-eco warriors. You'd rather things somebody has discarded and has no need for to the extent they are having to pay to dispose of, pollutes and goes to landfill over someone putting it to good use, simply because people having things for free doesn't sit right with you and they don't deserve it. A good little ozone destroying capitalist.

You were on hyper alert because of the previous car thefts and it came out as a bit of an over reaction to some skip diving.

Don't give yourself a hard time - at least the guy got to go home with a funny story about the lady who stopped him stealing rubbish from a skip.

Hope your head feels better soon.

It's rubbish (your neighbour does not want) on its way to be recycled.

This person is just speeding up the recycling and creating more room in the skip.

I don't think your interference was warranted.

When we had a skip, I was delighted when someone took a large, cat wee-soaked foam pouffe from the top, leaving loads of room (okay I positioned it hoping that someone would help themselves 😆)

We were delighted to have things taken from skips during lengthy renovations, freed up space and cost us less.
weren’t quite so thrilled at the stuff dumped in our building sand, though, particularly the dirty nappies.

WTAF? Someone was trying to recycle something about to go into a tip and you interfered.

We had this happen too. Even when they had scratched and dented our car and we told them to stop, they carried on going through the skip. One of them tried to load my sons bike into their van that was leaning against our garage. They finally left when I asked for their insurance details, took a photo of them and their van and we got our dogs. Cheeky fuckers.

Given that the OP has gone full mea culpa, I think people need to stop flaming her.

Though I’m always disappointed when the unreasonable OP turns out to be eminently reasonable, and holds their hands up. So much more fun when they dig in.

Or we're totally happy with them taking things but just think it's polite to ask the person who is renting the skip first. What's wrong with that?

Your neighbour will now have to pay for things to be removed that they could have got rid of for free; I would not mention this to them if I were you.

Yes! Honestly what's to gain? More room in the skip for the house owners if people take the unwanted items.
Do you know how tough life is just now and someone was maybe just taking some scrap metal to yard for cash.

What's the problem. We had a skip up for a week in a London suburb once, the skip divers came every night and saved us lots of money as we could get all our unwanted items taken away for the price of just one skip!

A few years ago I got roped in to join a friend and her friend to go round their town and rummage through the plastic recycling and ‘steal’ large plastic bottles so she could cut the ends off and then paint and turn into poppies for a garden remembrance project.

The mission was early morning!

My husband thought it was hilarious and threatened to drive past us with the windows down, playing (loudly) Cher’s ‘Gypsies, Tramps and thieves...!’ 😂

This. If you’re coming onto my property, then just ask.

One of my 'friends' many years ago was clearing out her shed and I was round for coffee that day, she came across something that would have been incredibly useful to me and offered to sell it to me - '£50 or it's going to the tip'

I said I was sorry but I didn't have the money to spare so she took it to the tip. I was astounded.