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?

Drive; ongoing house renovation; cul-de-sac; unfamiliar vans; suspicious; CCTV... my Mumsnet bingo card was almost full from the OP.

I had curtains though and the OP has blinds.

Don't be so hard on yourself, haven't we all said/done things in the moment we think about after and maybe would've acted differently. I've had stuff taken from a skip on my drive, I wasn't there, neighbour sent me a pic. Don't worry any more about it!

Honestly it's not a big deal. Doesn't really matter at all so don't give yourself a hard time. You thought you were doing the right thing at the time.

My son's skip was raided overnight, he was a happy bunny as it created more space for him!

He was technically doing your neighbour a favour by freeing up skip space. If he was reusing the items he was also doing the environment a favour, instead of it being discarded and dumped in landfills. Why would you interfere? If you had a headache how on earth could you be bothered?!

Just to give the OP a bit of support - we had a skip on our driveway for a few weeks recently. We had lots of people knocking on and asking if they could have a look, I had no problem whatsoever with that! But the people who come onto my property to have a good old rummage and take something without permission are quite frankly cheeky, entitled bastards! How dare they?!? They are stealing!

Taking things out of a skip is called "stealing by finding" and it is an offence, but I don't see why.

I think it's reasonable to ask him what he was doing and if he had checked with the property owner. And dodgy that he drove off and didn't do so.

There was a programme on about domestic burglaries a few years ago. People would rock up with large vehicles - removals vans, tow trucks, you name it, in broad daylight, break in, take a load of goods from the house, cars,
and loads of neighbours walked past, assumed they were legitimate (wearing hi vis automatically make you legit apparently) and never said a thing. I'm frankly grateful for people like the OP who ask questions, and don't walk on like blind sheep, even when something may be perfectly ok.

My parents' campervan was stolen from the street a few years ago and other vehicles and catalytic converters have been damaged or stolen locally, it's pretty common. So I wouldn't hesitate to ask a stranger what they are doing fiddling about with property or a vehicle in front of a neighbour's house.

Result! Better out than in!
What I can’t stand is waking up to find other people’s mattresses, wheel barrows, chairs, etc.filling up my skip. Not that I have a skip right now but the last time I did, I was paying for everyone’s removals. 😩

He'll just be wanting scrap metal to make a bit of money, unless he was taking something you knew your neighbour wanted then I would've left him to it. As others have said it better than it going to landfill.

Recyclable Metal in skips doesn't go to landfill, it's weighed in by the skip company.

Surely if your neighbours wanted it, they wouldn't have put it in the skip!

Skips are expensive. Skiprat people are very useful and good for the world, so long as they don’t leave a mess.

Skips are not locked vaults for precious items, they are giant containers for unwanted objects, rubble, and building offcuts, and the like.

I’m glad you don’t live next door to me, can’t stand curtain twitchers.

@TakeTheEgg you were actually right - people should at least ask for permission

For those who have posted that this has saved on landfill, skips are taken to waste reprocessing centres which take the contents and ‘a bit of metal’ taken by the person is exactly what the skip company wants to sell on as recycling
If it was an item that the skip diver was going to use then they would have done the ‘reuse’ of reduce, reuse, recycle. But it’s more likely that they are going to collect more metal to be ultimately sold as scrap - possibly selling it to the company who were taking the skip anyway.

For ‘saving’ the neighbour anything, private skips are likely to be at a fixed price whereas as commercial skips would be charged by weight. If it’s a fixed price skip then the skip diver would not have done a good deed for the neighbour but technically and actually stolen from the skip company

Having said all that though, the skip down the road from me has an emergency spare wheel
propped against it - that might be an invitation to take it …..

This happened to our neighbours.
sadly we weren’t in so didn’t see but apparently the burglars just drove a big van up and acted as if they were supposed to be there doing a removals job.
I’m all for neighbours being a little bit more nosy on behalf of each other.

The builder doing a long job over the road from us , with changes of skips, took to leaving a big notice on the skip with :’No metal here ‘ on it because he was fed up with overnight skip divers ruining his carefully packed skip and spilling stuff all over the road.

most of our house is from skips/side of road/charity shops. My DC could t believe it when I suggested (gasp) brand new bedroom furniture for their room.

you do have to dive a lot of skips to get the good stuff though. With the Ladderax I posted a picture on our neighbourhood WhatsApp thanking whoever dumped it. I got a reply that was less than gracious.

Just found this post based off my own post where I'm raging over trying to fill my skip up and people.are filling and emptying like their own personal recycling centre.

I know the skip company and I want them to weigh on the scrap. NOT the same bloke that keeps coming past daily.

I think the dog shit being put in my skip is what started my incessant rage over skip etiquette though. I'm with you OP.