To have assumed the elephant was free to a good home?

[listsandbudgets]

took DS (2) for a walk earlier in the rain and we saw a elephant on rockers abandoned on the pavement. DS immediately jumped on and started playing with and and kept saying " please take it home".

I knocked on the door of the house it was outside and the lady who answered said it had been there a couple of days but it wasn't hers.

I assumed it had been abandoned for whoever wanted it so picked it up and immediately a woman came racing out of the next house shouting that it was her sons toy and we were stealing it. She called me a thief and an "inconsiderate bitch" before snatching the elephant and walking back up her path still shouting abuse.

WIBU to assume that it had been put out for someone to take (as often happens round here?) Was the woman actually watching her elephant out of the window waiting to see who fell into the trap of actually picking it up? Who the hell leaves their elephant in the rain anyway?

Poor ds was really upset :(

I think there might be local customs on this. I'd only take it if it had a note on.

People leave stuff out to be taken all the time here, but there's usually a note making it clear. Without a note, I wouldn't assume it's there to be taken.

We leave old toys at the end of the drive and they disappear in 20 minutes, its a great way of getting rid of stuff and saves going to the tip. if its in the garden no one touches it... seems an unwritten rule around here.

I left a fisher price garage (spare) out on the front fence with a "please take me" note on... no-one took it so after 4 days I brought it in and sold it for £5 instead!

Yup around here it's usual too (East London). Things left on the pavement, or garden wall if a smaller item, are free to a good home. I've picked up a few things this way and passed stuff on too :-)

So if you live round here OP then YANBU. Anyway who leaves an expensive toy in the road for days if you're not giving it away (as the neighbour said!)

People leave things when i lived in London all the time outside usually with a note. Its because you move all the time and everyone renting. When you next move you might fill the car and no where to put anything else in. Must admit i had a bookcase i was going to do the same and take into street if not interest on gumtree, but someone bought it for £5. However if outside one house not block of flats i always knock on door to ask and check.

Ebwy..i saw a fisher price garage outside a gate when my dsis girl was 2 and really wanted to take it but it was beginning of day didnt fancy carrying it all day. I stood looking at it for 2 minutes before deciding to leave it for someone closer. It was one with a lift as in the 1970s ones. My dsis got one in charity shop week later which was played with by two children before being returned to the charity shop...

Of course you weren't bring unreasonable. Why would you let a kid play with something like that out on the street in the first place; never mind then go inside and leave it there??

I thought leaving unwanted stuff on the pavement for people to help themselves to was standard practice, it is round here.

It's standard practice here (SE London) that anything left on the wall/pavement is free to a good home. I put my broken bbq out, actually behind my front wall so not even on the pavement and it was gone within an hour. The scrap vans drive past all the time looking for stuff.

londonrach it was a more modern one, probably about 8 or 9 years old at most

My DH found a large bear out in the rain so he came to live in our back yard instead due to being a bit manky and also nearly 6 ft tall. It was next to a bin though so more clear cut than your situation. However an elephant on rockers in the rain seems like a very sad elephant indeed I mean I it's not as if it could walk itself to somewhere drier, a bus shelter perhaps.

Here in London, anything left outside like this is to be taken and used, furniture, toys, gardening equipment. It's very common.

She was being ridiculous. YANBU OP.

Where I live (London) everyone leaves things they don't want outside on the pavement too so I would have presumed it was there for the taking.

Same here!

I would assume that a child had been playing outside on it and had forgotten to take it in.

So no I wouldn't have thought it was there for the taking.

We leave things out on the curb to be picked up. It's very common around here, but it's usually items that you wouldn't normally find outside; a high chair, an end table, a vacuum, etc. A child's toy I would probably assume had been left by a careless child and not up for grabs. The elephant in question, though, doesn't really look like something that should be outside. So, I'm of two minds, I guess. I probably would have erred on the side of caution and assumed it was not left there to give away.

Round here it's common to leave white goods etc outside for the scrap man or items of furniture to be taken. But not toys.

Where I live it is normal to leave stuff on the pavement for people to take. YANBU ranting woman was.