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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

about blokes rummaging in our skip?

98 replies

SomethingNastyInTheBallPool · 08/06/2018 12:52

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!

OP posts:

haba · 08/06/2018 15:22

We had a skip when we had the garden done a few years ago... and DH went out and moaned at a chap from up the road that was taking things I just don't know why- it was rubbish!
He didn't know either, really, he was just cross because the chap hadn't asked (and he dumped the stuff back anyway, because it really was rubbish!)

ReallyWTF · 08/06/2018 15:23

I've done google images and got a picture of Joseph Fritzl. Okaaaaaaay, makes complete sense Even poor Benedict Cumberbatch is there.

If you get Cumberbatch hunting through your skip, can you send him to me please.

Hoppinggreen · 08/06/2018 15:30

I’m more then happy for people to take things out of my skip as long as they knock and ask.
I politely suggested to one man who was rooting through my skip that he should have asked and he very rudely replied how was he supposed to know who’s skip it was? I suggested that it being on my drive was a big clue and he should bugger off.
He argued that once it was in the skip it was no longer my property and I had no right to stop him taking things out - I pointed out that it was on my driveway and so was he and as I had taken a photo of his van and would report anything he took as stolen he should probably leave.
As I said, all he had to do was ask and he could have had it all - and I would have warned him about the broken glass and gross things in there !

ToadOfSadness · 08/06/2018 15:43

"According to the law in England and Wales: "A person commits theft if he dishonestly appropriates property belonging to another with the intention of permanently depriving the other of it."

Just because someone throws something away, does not mean they don't own it. So if it can be proven that the property that was thrown away had a rightful owner, it would be illegal to take it."

In my road if something is unwanted it is placed on the kerb for others to take. If it is in the garden it is not, however that doesn't stop people wandering in to see what they can pinch, usually for scrap (metal) and dump the rest in someone's field entrance, or to re-sell (broken electronics). While they are there they also go through anything else that they can see to see what can be stolen.

I have no problem with giving things to others, I object to having them stolen from my property by nearby workmen, having said that I do not currently have a skip.

TheHodgeoftheHedge · 08/06/2018 15:48

A far bigger problem with skips tends to be people putting their stuff in your skip. We once had other people fill our skip full of their crap in less than 48 hours. We then had to pay to get it emptied so that we could actually use the skip as we needed to.

ThanksForAllTheFish · 08/06/2018 15:50

If it’s on private property then no it’s not a free for all. Yes it’s good to recycle but it’s very cheeky to go into someone’s garden and help yourself to things (skip or no skip).
It’s fine if they ask first, or if the skip is on the road.

Our area has a problem with people taking things from gardens, bicycles are a big target for the white van men. Our neighbour buys cars to fix up and sell. As a result he has a collection of spare car tyres in his garden and he’s had to chase people a few times who have jumped the fence to help themselves - just because something is lying outside on private property does not make it free to take, be it in a skip, or looking like it’s an old appliance set for the dump. You don’t know what the owner has intended for these items.

If someone had left say a chest of drawers on the street I would assume it’s free to take but if it was on the driveway it isn’t. If it was something I wanted I would ask first.

ScrubTheDecks · 08/06/2018 16:15

Do you really want ‘dodgy’ looking people, even non-dodgy people, knocking on your door and disturbing you to ask if they can relieve you of stuff you have thrown away?

It’s a bit prissy, IMO.

Branleuse · 08/06/2018 16:17

if youre chucking it out, then whats the problem. Theyre saving you money if youve now got more room in your skip

Brieonabagel · 08/06/2018 16:18

Dp’s friend came home to find some things had been taken from her back garden. It was their bbq, a bicycle and a few other bits and bobs (metal stuff)
She called the police and they came round. Standing in the garden chatting to her about there being not much they can do as no witnesses etc. They advised her that she should look into securing the access to the garden to which she sarcastically replied ‘what, like having a massive gate?’ because that’s what she had. They replied ‘yes, a gate would be good’ she then glanced over and realised they’d actually stolen her gate too! She’d walked through the passageway to the garden a few times since finding the stuff gone and had even gone through with the police and not noticed!

Imsosceptical · 08/06/2018 16:28

We have kerb side collections here in OZ, as a Pom I found it slightly odd when I first arrrived but now I’m totally sold on the concept. So a few times a year we can put out our rubbish (not household trash, just stuff we don’t want anymore) and the council will collect it. The weekend before, hoards of people come driving round and take what they want, many are carbooters looking for stuff to sell but hey ho, it’s recycling, if I don’t want it anymore I don’t begrudge others having it. No one knocks on your door to ask permission, the fact you put it out means it’s fair game, although we did one get a knock asking if we had keys to the drawers we had put out, my reply, errr NO, that’s why I put it on the kerb collection!!!

MillyTheKid · 08/06/2018 16:31

I guess it's better than everyone in the neighbourhood immediately filling it with their own rubbish at night.

PinkSparklyPussyCat · 08/06/2018 16:41

Wow, you're mean!

Not mean, just fed up with strange people thinking it was acceptable to go into the garden to take what they fancied.

One man did ask and I had no problem with him. I did feel sorry for him when I looked out the window and saw him taking something that had been put in there by accident. He looked terrified as I went running out of the door and told him he couldn't have it and I actually felt mean but it was something my Dad had bought me.

TheFirstMrsDV · 08/06/2018 17:41

Its become very common for people to put stuff out on the pavement for others to take away round here.
Interesting this has increased as the area has become gentrified.
People get a glow from not chucking things into landfill.
Unfortunately this area has narrow pavements.
So when you combine all the bikes chained to lampposts, the twee mini gardens installed around street trees and the offerings of bedside tables, chairs, cd racks etc, its become a bloody obstacle course for anyone on a scooter, using a wheelchair or with a buggy.

halcyondays · 08/06/2018 17:44

It's being thrown out anyway. If they take stuff out you'll be able to fiit more in.

mrcharlie · 08/06/2018 17:48

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TheHodgeoftheHedge · 08/06/2018 18:26

Er... mrcharlie... pikey is a pretty offensive term... just saying...

mrcharlie · 08/06/2018 18:42

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sueelleker · 08/06/2018 19:07

I have a lovely corner display cupboard that one of my neighbours left out. I can't believe they didn't want it. (I did ask)

TheHodgeoftheHedge · 08/06/2018 20:39

What did I miss?!

wanderings · 08/06/2018 20:51

pikey is a pretty offensive term... just saying...
I remember my granddad saying we were pikeys if we didn't wash our faces. He was also fond of the word "hooligan". Not comparable, I know.

But to return to the skipping matter, I had the opposite problem with a skip: stuff dumped in it. Including some nice ornaments which I took inside.

MumofBoysx2 · 08/06/2018 20:57

It's unreasonable of them to just rummage through, if they have to be on your drive to do it. How about making another pile nearer the road of anything metal, as that is mainly what they are probably after. At the end of it though you are paying to have the stuff taken away, so they are doing you a somewhat clumsy favour.

dancinfeet · 08/06/2018 21:54

Here the biggest problem is not people taking stuff out, it's putting stuff in. I hired a small skip to get rid of some unwanted furniture and other bits because I don't drive and couldn't take them to the tip. I filled my skip that day and left it overnight to be collected the next day, next morning I got up and some cheeky beggers had filled it even more and piled stuff up ridiculously high. When the company came to collect it they refused to take it because it was too full and they wanted me to get another skip to get rid of the excess stuff. I ended up asking a friend with a car to come and help me take all the extra stuff to the tip . . . I might as well have done that to begin with (didn't want to inconvenience anyone) and saved myself some money on skip hire!!

GinisLife · 09/06/2018 09:27

I was sat in my home office on Thursday night. A van pulled up, a man got out, walked up my drive, waving at me as he did, checked out a cardboard box next to the bin to see if he wanted the contents (he didn't) and went back to the van and him and his mate waved at me as they drove off 😳😂

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