Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

I found it in a bag outside a charity shop.

69 replies

MrsJackRackham · 26/05/2019 20:30

Lady on Antiques Roadshow said she found an 18th century glass in a bag left outside a charity shop. No. You stole an item donated to a charity which has now lost out on potentially £1k. There is a chance that the shop wouldn't realise the glass was an antique but still, she stole it!! AIBU?

OP posts:
Original poster
MrsJackRackham · 26/05/2019 20:54

Yes, charity shops ask for stuff not to be left outside the shop. Yes, until taken inside it's just stuff left on the street. But the woman said it was outside a charity shop so she clearly knew the intention of the owner to donate their belongings. The PP was right, it was the smugness of her that pissed me off.

OP posts:
alltoomuchrightnow · 26/05/2019 20:54

Fly tipping stuff is pretty much fair game for people to pick through. Charity shops hate trawling though it and boot sale left overs.
If it meant something to the donator they would bring it during opening hours.
One shop I'd manage, I'd have view of it as I went round the roundabout on my journey in before opening up. On a Monday morning for eg, I could see 20 donation bags outside. Then a van would pull up and take the lot. By the time I arrived, all gone (or in some cases, strewn down the bypass..guess who had to pick it all up.. was told I was liable!)

Alabasterangel6 · 26/05/2019 20:57

Sorry but I must have massively misheard.

I thought she said she’d found it in a ‘tub of random glasses’ outside a charity shop.

Meaning a bucket/tub/basket of mixed glasses was outside the shop front for a rootle round and she found the glass.

Did I mishear then?

alltoomuchrightnow · 26/05/2019 20:59

I didn't see the show so can't comment on her personally...apart from I'd hope she'd donate to the charity.
However, if she hadn't taken it, some drunk would have probably smashed it and then some poor volunteer would have to waste their unpaid time clearing it up just to get in the front door

Alabasterangel6 · 26/05/2019 21:00

Sorry,
I’ve scrolled back and she said 100% there was a tub of random glasses outside the charity shop and she dug it out. Our charity shop has many varied boxes and tubs outside.

I don’t think she helped herself to bagged donations at all.

Itssosunny · 26/05/2019 21:02

You would be surprised how much stuff goes into the waste bins. I have seen cars coming to go through the charity bins on a daily basis! Don't think they sell everything you have donated to them. Of course some stuff which ends in the bins is just junk.

thegreatcrestednewt · 26/05/2019 21:03

Oh well, that’s fair enough then! Good for her.

alltoomuchrightnow · 26/05/2019 21:03

Some shops will dump all stuff left after hours, due to risk of contamination. Can't say I blame them after having encounters myself eg head to toe soaked in piss (when a bag split on me), also things with human shit, needles, concealed knives..

alltoomuchrightnow · 26/05/2019 21:05

Itsso, In my experience working at many shops all over London (as well as other areas) in the busier areas about 80% got binned as was not fit for anything and couldn't all be recycled eg broken plastic toys, fridges etc. Textiles went to Rags but not if mouldy or damp.

tor8181 · 26/05/2019 21:05

this rummaging behaviour is quite common in charity shops after closing

my cousin lives in a flat above a large pub and it has a charity shop opposite,this is the only charity shop in his small town
his living room window overlooks the side door

hes always sending me texts with pics or stories on how many different types of people(all walks of life) he sees regularly rummaging through dumped bags as people know that many just dump outside

they seem to just turn up a hour after closing and try their luck,apparently a day or two after a bank holiday or a week or less before christmas get very busy ,his neighbor is sleeping on a perfect single bed that he"found"propped up at the front window,complete with mattress and a bag or bedding containing a quilt and has a perfectly working 32 inch tv he "found"

people have such different views on whats stealing though and its a grey area ,is it stealing from a shop if its just left on a public pavement as the shop havent taken that in yet and the giver havent donated to the shop they have just dumped on a public street

checky fuckery to go on tv and make a profit though

SchoolPanicTime · 26/05/2019 21:06

YANBU. Even if the shop wouldn't realise it was an antique the correct thing to do would be to bloody tell them so the charity could benefit.

TurnOffTheTv · 26/05/2019 21:07

I thought she said she’d found it in a ‘tub of random glasses’ outside a charity shop

She really did. You need to listen better next time OP!

Alabasterangel6 · 26/05/2019 21:07

Listen again.

The op says ‘I found it in a bag left outside a charity shop’.

This is not the wording used by the person on the program AT ALL. She says ‘I found it in a random tub of mixed glasses outside my charity shop’

A random tub of glasses is kerbside sellings put out by the shop to attract sales - my local shop (which I volunteer at two weekends a month!) regularly put boxes outside the shop of stuff that just hasn’t shifted. We have a box of books, one of plates/China and a box of kids toys.

I’ve listened twice now and can not hear her once suggest she helped herself to a charity donation bag.

Alsohuman · 26/05/2019 21:10

It was fly tipped. She stole nothing.

Alabasterangel6 · 26/05/2019 21:11

It wasn’t fly tipped!! And she didn’t steal anything!!! It was in a sales box outside the shop!!

crazyasafox · 26/05/2019 21:11

Has anyone got a link to the clip off the show where she said it? (where she got the item..)

Playmytune · 26/05/2019 21:12

Just watched this and she is a CF of the worst kind! She seemed so smug about how clever she was stealing from charity!

investigator If you find something on the street you cannot just keep it!! If I drop my phone and someone picks it up it DOES NOT belong to them. If they keep it they are stealing.

Really hope this woman’s family or friends tell her how wrong she has been. I can’t get my head round her bragging on tv that she is a thief!! Pretty sure someone will recognise her from the program.

Saucery · 26/05/2019 21:14

It’s not the fault of a charity shop buyer that a donor didn’t have items valued or that a charity shop didn’t spot something that might need valuing to maximise profit. Always nice to hear of someone who goes back and gives more to the charity but they are under no obligation to. It wasn’t worth an earth shattering amount anyway.

Original poster
MrsJackRackham · 26/05/2019 21:18

Apologies if I took the meaning wrong but 'found' outside a charity shop to me means she has taken it without paying. Plus she never said how much she paid for it which is always the thing mentioned when it's a charity shop purchase on AR. She was still smug though Grin

OP posts:
Cryalot2 · 26/05/2019 21:22

She really owes the charity a sizable donation.
But karma tends to happen .

Saucery · 26/05/2019 21:22

I think you have mistaken the meaning tbh. “I found it outside in a tub “ ( or box, as I thought she said but not really paying full attention) meant to me she had discovered it.
The Glass expert is also not as sedate and measured as some other presenters so in his eagerness to draw comparisons with the other ‘found’ object probably forgot to ask how much she paid for it.

Supersimpkin · 26/05/2019 21:22

Charity shop volunteer here:

It might have been the rubbish from the charity shop which most have to leave outside as they use private recycling companies.

Sometimes (whisper it) shops leave stuff for people to nick as it's cheaper than paying for council to remove it.

If it was a donation, hey, anything decent always gets stolen by morning anyway. In London professional scavengers do the bins as a matter of course.

Having said all that, I once picked up a sack of donations outside my shop about 9pm one night when I was coming back from somewhere else and hopped on the bus with it to bring in for when I next came to work.

A purple-faced 'lady' in her 60s approached me as the bus took off. She was shuddering with rage and hissed 'Stealing....from a charity... how could you... stealing from the sick'. Spit went all over me.

I smiled and said sweetly 'I work for the sick. For nothing. Like you do, I am sure, Madam'.

Beetroot Face sat down, everyone moving up hastily in case spit went on them too. There was a tiny bit of applause Grin

Never seen her again, but Beetroot Face is a MNetter for sure.

Alabasterangel6 · 26/05/2019 21:23

Good grief.

Lady one says she ‘found’ the bottle in a barn.

Lady two says she ‘found’ the glass ‘in a tub of random glasses outside my charity shop’

There nothing in that statement which intimates she stole it or took it without paying. NOTHING. Nothing that suggests it was flytipped or dumped or in a bag waiting to be sorted. As I’ve said my charity shop has a row of tubs and baskets outside. And some random buggies and rails of clothes.

Found does not mean stolen. The two words are not the same.

Saucery · 26/05/2019 21:25

Wow, she’s getting a right monstering on here. It was what, 2 minutes of a programme? Who the fuck knows whether she did or didn’t give a further donation?

Is Able to start a row about The Antiques Roadshow the new Abke to start a fight in an empty house ? Hmm

juliej00ls · 26/05/2019 21:26

Watching this on green button so a bit behind DH .... “so is she saying she took something that had been left for a charity shop”. YANBU

Swipe left for the next trending thread