Pinching from a skip. Yes or No?

[Rainyrunway]

My NDN are having renovations done and they have a skip outside their house full of random stuff. I just saw someone drive past, then reverse the car, get out and start rummaging. They grabbed a couple of bits out, stuck in their car and drove off. I found it quite funny (but a bit cheeky) personally and dont think id mind if someone knicked something from a skip outside my house. But it got me thinking. Would you do it? Is it ok? Or is it's stealing?

Our next door but one neighbours house was finally being cleared, she was a hoarder gone into care. Her house was rat infested and was so damp there was no plaster left on the walls, there was a swamp on the floor including the carcasses of dead rats.
There was a skip outside for everything being removed and I was cleaning my bedroom windows and watched a woman get out of her car and start rummaging through and it turned my stomach. My neighbour further down was walking his dog and told her about the state of the house and how she probably shouldn't be handling anything in the skip but she told him it was good stuff so she was going to continue.

So no I don't think people should be skip diving but only because you might not know the state of the house 🤢

If its on someones drive then I would always ask, if its on the road I'd happily take something (and have had many a good find this way!!) I got our fire place out of a skip in the 90s, I was having difficulty lifting it out and a bobby on the beat (remember them!!) offered to help!

There is technically this offence of theft by finding, but in all honesty, the police today can't be arsed if someone actually breaks in and takes your stuff so the liklihood of them being concerned about someone taking someone rubbish out of a bin is slim no none.

But they were fair game 🤷🏻‍♀️
Your builder’s being too dim to understand what was rubbish and what wasn’t is your actual issue.
No different to them putting the stuff in the bin and the bin men taking it.

I mean, yeah, technically it’s stealing, but it’s also rescuing stuff from landfill, so I’m all in favour of skip diving.

But if its on private land you have had to trespass to get it, so I'd say not fair game - fair game is stood on the public highway.

I'd always ask. Bit surprised how many wouldn't tbh. I know it happens but I'm surprised people don't check first.

i had a case in court last year someone “stealing” from a skip - (it was on a business car park though). owners had cctv. reported to police and cps prosecuted.

Private land, and was it a normal skip or a skip for scrap metal provided by a scrap dealer - in that case the scrap merchant provides the skip free and pays the user for the waste, these are often found outside industrial units.

Yeah, I’m not sure it would count as trespass in law?
You’re actually allowed onto people’s property for certain purposes (such as leafleting, etc) without being considered to have committed an offence.
You’d have a hard time proving that the stuff you had stored in a skip wasn’t actually valueless rubbish, but things you had fully intended to keep.

I think you should ask first. And those people who pull stuff out of the skip to rummage to the bottom and discard the things they don't want on the drive are as bad as people who try and dump their stuff in your skip.

They weren’t fair game. Anything in a skip belongs to the actual owner. It’s definitely theft, though isn’t generally enforced.

not scrap metal, just a basic builders skip. private land made no difference- trespass is (in the main) a civil matter so not relevant in a criminal proceedings and certainly played no part in this prosecution.

@Hannahsbananas oh of course I spoke to the builders, but ultimately, I think it's pretty cheeky not to ask first, especially if it's on the drive. Mistakes happen and its entirely possible if a family were clearing something out that something might get skipped accidentally. Id put the chance of upsetting someone above the chance of some "fair game" stuff.

I'm always amazed by how many people stop their car to have a rummage through a skip on my drive; and also what random things they take. Technically it's theft but it always saves me skip space, and therefore money so 🤷🏼‍♀️
(I have been known to leave things on my drive that are for the tip, knowing they'd just be stolen and save me time and money too!)

Very cheeky if on a drive or private land. I called the police on one dickhead that came into my drive and took metal stuff out of it.

Apparently he didn't know that I was in! That's what a doorbell is for surely! He was amazed I'd called the police but he put it all back once he heard me on the phone to them.

Oooh skip diving! As a young woman I was too shy. Fast forward the years and just this last week picked up 3 folding wooden garden chairs, 5 large garden pots and 2 shiny milk pails. Positively rubbing my hands and gloating over my new treasure.

So you put it back in the skip to be taken to the dump?

Why on earth did you call the police.

So instead of him taking it and likely selling it you made him put it back in the skip where it might have been sorted and sold or sent to landfill?

You didn't want it.

If it's parked right outside someone's house I think it's a bit cheeky not to ask first. What if they changed their mind about throwing something away? Technically it's stealing and possibly trespassing as well if it's not on the public road.

If the skip was just plonked in a layby, not near any houses and there was no-one around, I'd probably have a rummage.

I think it is technically illegal.

The question is how do you distinguish between discarded rubbish on someones land and their personal property that they want to keep.

Skips have no special status in law. A skip doesn't mean anything placed in it is exempt from being stolen.

I am wary of it round my way because the scrappers are very aggressive. They will come onto your property and take stuff and of course if they are challenged with stealing they will claim that they thought they were taking rubbish. They will take anything especially metal. And a "social acceptance" that this is OK just encourages them. So if you want everyones front garden to become a free for all this is the way to go about it.

So in my view no one coming onto private land even to take stuff from a skip should be encouraged.

Of course if they ask permission it is fine.

@SeeingSpots , he was trespassing, and the owner might have been filling a skip with scrap metal for the purpose of selling it.

How many people put their personal property they want to keep in a skip?

@hamsterchump , what you do with your own belongings on your property is your business.
Legally, you should ask first, or it is theft.

It's absolutely fine in my opinion.

The stuff has been literally thrown away. I had a skip once and the police knocked on my door because a homeless person had been seen removing some items from it. I was gobsmacked that the police thought it was any of their business (or mine) what happened to stuff we had thrown away.

I would not mind at all. Makes more room in the skip for things I want rid of and people recycling skipped objects are doing planet earth a good turn. I'd probably knock and ask if I saw something I would like to re-use in someone else's skip. I would not mind if someone did not ask me, I'd think they might be a bit shy or embarrassed or something like that.