They went through my skip!

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Is this a thing? We have a skip outside as we have been doing some decorating/clearing out. I heard a van outside the house which seemed to have stopped so I looked out and two blokes were rummaging in the skip! I went downstairs to ask what they were doing but they had just left. I noticed some metal items had gone out of the skip.
Is this normal? Do people just drive round looking for skips to have a nose in? I’m not bothered by them taking stuff out but surely it would have been polite to ask?!

They'll be metal collectors, no it's not really normal but they just take what they want at least around my area they do.

It’s in a skip because you don’t want it. It’s fair game to me.

It's normal here. I'm grateful. Can fit more in the skip

Yep it's a thing.

Someone took some very old trainers out of mine

Yes it's common. I know it's stuff you're throwing away but it's still rude imo to just dive in there

It's a good thing when people go through skips to find things to reuse or recycle instead of going to landfill.

Yes, totally normal here. I agree, it would seem right for people to ask especially as they need to come on to your property to take stuff but that never happens, they just pull up and choose what they want.

It's good that things are been recycled and reused. I think that most people would see it as things that are being thrown out. I would object if you said someone was chucking things on your skip.

It's skip diving. Can come in useful - I went to bed with a full skip once, got up and it was half empty, so I filled it some more!

People taking stuff out of a skip is fine. Your rubbish is another person's treasure etc.

It's people jumping THEIR shit into the skip that pisses me off.

YANBU, it's theft. Even if you are going to throw something out it's still theft because they've taken something with the intention of permanently take it away from the rightful owner. Everything has a rightful owner, and until your skip is collected the contents belong to you. Call the police, it's not an emergency obviously so don't call 999. Chances are they are opportunistic thieves and this is not the first and last time they've done this so logging the theft helps the police build a picture of what's going on in the area.

It's generally polite to knock on the door and ask but skipping is definitely a thing. I've got some good stuff from skip diving

That’s what I said! Just seems odd to not ask.

Plus they have taken two out of a set of besting tables as I hadn’t put the last one in yet! Tempted to post it on local FB group and see if they want to come back for it.

Taking stuff out - fine. Putting stuff in - not fine.

Yes that very normal, when I live we put the metal outside the front wall for the scrap metal people to take, it’s usually gone within a hour! It always impresses me how quickly it goes!

In my student days we furnished our entire house of of people's skips. You threw it away, why would anyone need to ask? Did you put it in a skip to use later? Would you have said no if someone did ask?
Now, adults, we frequently had skips when moving or redecorating. I honestly would have been annoyed if someone knocked on my door and asked me permission to go through my skip. What a massive waste of time. It's basically a bin of things I no longer need. So just go for it.

Legally they should have asked but more space for the other besting table.. Whatever they are!!

Agreed, if someone else can make use of my rubbish then good for them and more space in my skip for me!

It seems a bit petty to want people to come and ask you if they can have stuff you’ve already decided is rubbish and were happy to get taken away. And I can’t say I’d actually want to be interrupted if I were in the middle of e.g. work or a shower by a knock on the door asking about my rubbish.

Really depends whether the skip is on your property.

If it is, it is theft. There is a pretty fine line between coming onto someones property and taking stuff out of a skip and coming onto someones property and removing random stuff that the thief will then argue "they thought was for disposal".

If you leave stuff outside your property it is fair game IMO, but then I guess there is a possibility you may be charged with fly tipping if it is not in a skip.

I used to leave stuff out for the scrappers but now I don't because they started taking stuff from my property that was not for disposal. Now I don't leave stuff out because I don't want to encourage them.

For the people who say its useful, this is rubbish. Skip companies like anyone else will be charged for rubbish they put into landfill, so anything that can be reused or scrapped like metal will be removed from the skip by the skip company.

The lady who lived here https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/143079314#/?channel=RES_BUY pretty much furnished her whole house by nosing in local skips and knocking on the door to ask if she could take stuff left out by bins - she was very polite!

Exactly this!!

They guess it's a given you don't want the stuff you chucked in there. They are doing you a favour. I'd say take the lot if you want, then we can fill it again for free. The worst one is people using someone else's skip. I asked the neighbours if I could put a small broken chair in, it was more like a large broken couch cut in half so I'm guilty of that in a big way! That's more annoying than skip diving.

We got a skip for clear out when we moved house, within an hour if it being delivered someone had put some rubbish it it, I was livid, it was not a large skip and had cost us a lot of money, we needed the room for our crap. Then when we started filling it, we have loads of people rooting in it, even coming in vans🙄