about blokes rummaging in our skip?

[SomethingNastyInTheBallPool]

We’re having building work done at the moment and have a skip on our drive.
Suddenly, we’re a magnet for dodgy-looking blokes who turn up in vans and start rummaging through the skip, taking whatever they fancy. This happens several times a day.
Now, I’m all in favour of recycling and like to think of stuff being reused but - am I BU to find it rude and a bit uncomfortable that these people are coming into my front garden in a very quiet suburban road and taking stuff without asking?
I confronted one man just now but he seemed to think I was BVU!

That said i love when people reclaim stuff from skips and recycle them. We used to have a fab glass wardrobe years ago (with permission.)

I think it's a bit odd if they come into your garden without asking first, in fact I saw a bloke the other day in someone's garden doing just that. But if it's on the street then I can't see a problem at all. Skips are bloody expensive, so if someone is taking stuff and making more room then great, plus the recycling of it.

*Everyone knows what it means to say someone looks dodgy

I'm Autistic so I don't know actually. Is someone going to tell me?*

You are on the internet using Mumsnet. Surely you are capable of using Google and searching for it?

dodgy

adjectiveBRITISHinformal

dishonest or unreliable.
"a dodgy second-hand car salesman"
potentially dangerous.
"activities like these could be dodgy for your heart"
of low quality.
"Spurs' dodgy defence had thrown away a 2-0 lead"
synonyms: second-rate, third-rate, substandard, low-grade, low-quality, cheap;

Why would you take a phot dogzdinner ?
What are you going to do with the photo ?

Why do you object to someone else using something you don't want, that is otherwise going to landfill ?

backforgood I don't know, I just thought if they're doing something illegal they might stop it if they knew they were being filmed/photographed just a suggestion.

If it's on the road, fine. If it's on a private driveway and means going onto private property, they should ask. It's not taking the rubbish that's the issue for me; it's the coming up the driveway and standing on your property etc - who would want a gang of strangers doing that if they hadn't asked first? Luckily most people do ask, I think.

If anything I think they're doing me a favour when it happens to me - skips are expensive so if they're going to create more room in mine I'm all for it!

My DH likes to stack a skip like a jigsaw puzzle, each piece in its own place to fit more in. He got really pissed off when someone came and rummaged in our skip and there was actually less space left afterwards!

Same as the ones that pinch stuff left in the gardens as far as I can see. If they had the manners to come to the door and ask it would be OK. It is not the fact that is gets taken, it is the fact they think it is OK to help themselves to stuff without asking. If I saw something in a skip that I wanted i would ask.

That includes items that are left for people from Freecycle that they also take, and that is theft, it is also trespass. They will also help themselves to parcels that have been left.

When we had our kitchen re-furbisheed a few years ago, the fitter put a small skip on the front lawn. Every evening after thay had gone, we used to go out and rummage through whatever they had thrown away that day. It was amazing how much unused material etc. was deemed no longer required, and DH had a week of field days salvaging useful stuff. Best item was an unwrapped cabinet end panel, which had obviously been over-ordered. Supplier gave us its cost, £100, when we showed it to them when they came round for fina inspection.

Confused how it’s theft though?
If people have an honest held belief that you have got rid of it in that it is in a SKIP how is it dishonest appropriation of property?

What did the man say when you confronted him?

He said “It’s in a skip. It’s not like I’m going into your garden and taking stuff”. I pointed out that that’s exactly what he was doing but he didn’t seem impressed by my argument.

We have skips on our private drive quite regularly for DIY and they get rifled through every night. It is very annoying to go to our cars in the morning and find we have to pick up rubbish strewn across our drive that we had previously bagged up neatly. They take what they want and leave the rest on the floor of our property. The worst was a tin of white paint, which was splattered down the drive and across into the public road. I find it really creepy that they come at night. Only once has someone knocked and asked. The rest that come make a bloody mess.

If someone gets injured they can sue the person who hired the skip bizarrely

Has this ever actually happened? Sounds unlikely to me.

Wouldn't bother me. I would get annoyed if people kept knocking on the door asking permission to take something I had thrown out.

Its better than it all going to landfill.

Tbh I find it more daft you can be charged with theft for taking someone's rubbish they clearly don't want .

I have no issue with it, don't knock on my door and it's even better as you're just disturbing me. Tbh I would just let them get on with it and earn a living.

Like a other previous poster, I've known the opposite problem.

My mum hired one, and suddenly all these neighbours appeared that she had never even spoken to our seen before were asking if they could put stuff in it

You are on the internet using Mumsnet. Surely you are capable of using Google and searching for it?

I actually did. It gives a definition of "dodgy" (dishonest or unreliable) but does not have an explanation of what it means to look dodgy. So I still have no clue.

Riddley- occupiers liability act. The landowner can be responsible for all sorts!

AbsolutelyBeginning see, your search did not unveil what "looking dodgy" actually means either. I'm not stupid, I have a PhD, I simply do not "get" what it means to look dodgy. How can someone "look" dishonest??

If you want to see what it means to look dodgy, use google images

we had our aluminium double glazing changed and scrap metal people put the frames on drive smashed glass and took the metal. Broken glass everywhere for us to clean up so don't think yabu

The other issue not mentioned here is that some unscrupulous scrap metal collectors will take a big item, strip it and flytip the shell. I wouldn't want that !

The best bit was seeing one of them open a bag of clothes, put a pair of jeans up against himself to see if they would fit and then taking the whole bag of clothes.

That's so sad.

I did have to laugh when the mattress and dismantled bed frame was taken from the skip. They didn't go together and whoever took them would have put the single bed frame together and realised the double mattress wasn't any good to them! Serves them right!

Wow, you're mean!

I belong to a FB page where people give away their unwanted 'crap' and am continuously surprised by what people will take, and presumably use. It's really opened my eyes to how some people really are living on the breadline and will make do with anything they can get.