They went through my skip!

[IncognitoUsername]

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?!

If someone breaks into your house and takes valuables the police generally do nothing except give you a crime number for the insurance.

The idea that they would do anything about stuff left outside, unsecured in full view is totally mad.

Very normal around here for scrap men to take metal from skips 🤷‍♀️

Also, why why why would you put a valuable heating system in a skip outside on the driveway???

What if you had a skip when replacing a full central heating system, all pipe-work and the electrics in a house, etc, etc. and were expecting to get £500 for the scrap, but someone just came and took it?

If would probs be a good idea to sheet the skip at that point.

Very normal here, I don’t mind them taking the stuff, the travellers that took stuff out of mine came down the drive and knocked, fair play to them. They only took metal and left no mess, unlike the scum that went in DDs skip unannounced and ripped all the bin bags open and threw shit all over the pavement until I told them to fucking pick it all up.

I hate the people that out shit in your skip not those that take it out 😃

Someone took our washing machine! We were having work done on the house including a new kitchen, and had moved out for a few weeks. When we got to our temporary place the owner said the washing machine was broken and he'd sort a new one. As ours was being removed to be replaced I suggested that we just use that in the interim, went back home and it had been taken from the drive.

Skip diving is normal around here, both for amateurs and professional skip divers.

Crews of lads show up in pickup trucks with ladders and tools, usually looking for kitchen cabinetry, hardware, bathroom fixtures, and metal pipes.

People walking by might spot something like a bookcase or an office chair they can reach. I've seen people stop and take put their phones to summon help and a vehicle and haul off some very nice stuff - chest of drawers, rug, bookcase, armchair.

As long as they don't strew stuff out on the sidewalk or the street, there's no problem.

Skip divers saved us a fortune in 2020. We were clearing out our parents house and had budgeted for 3 skips as house clearances were non existent during Lockdown 2. In the end we only needed 2 as people just helped themselves to whatever was in there that took their fancy.

cant believe how many people are saying its rude not to knock on the door and ask, when Mummsnet is notorious for not answering their doors to anyone who hasn't made an appointment.
should they actually be posting a note first? explaining they will be knocking within a certain timeframe followed with a description of themselves?

(lighthearted obviously 😁)

Forgot to add that it’s so common round here, our friends who are kitchen fitters, leave the metal stuff like extractors, ovens, sinks, radiators in front of the skip for the scrap men to stop them messing up the skip which has been strategically stacked with old kitchen units and cardboard packaging.

Better than randoms putting stuff in.
I think technically they’re supposed to ask but as it’s stuff you’re throwing out and it leaves more space , skip hire is expensive.

Someone once said to me that the difference between the South of England and the North is that in the South if you leave a skip on the road people will fill it with their stuff and in the North they will have a look to see what they can take. A process in our area known as "tatting".

It's what Winston Churchill called a 'sturdy indefensible'.

I had a skip once when moving countries. Neighbours asked to put things in but no one took anything out! I was actually quite upset as it meant all my stuff was so rubbish no one even wanted to steal it. I was actually disappointed nobody went through it and took anything. I took it as a bit of an insult🤣🤣🤣.

Omg yes call the police! I would even say it's an emergency, call 999!! In fact call MI5, tell them someone is taking your rubbish away and reusing it and it's not acceptable! These vagabond criminals deserve jail! Throw away the key I say!!

It's not theft, why say that? This is discarded material which is waste (definition is discard or intend to discard). The more waste that is diverted from landfill, the better.

Just because you're not familiar with the issue of scrap theft from people's property doesn't mean it doesn't exist or that the police just ignore it because it "is totally mad" to you.

https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/crime/2024/01/16/police-appeal-over-scrap-metal-thefts/

https://www.northyorkshire.police.uk/news/north-yorkshire/news/news/2024/02-february/men-charged-with-scarborough-scrap-metal-theft/

2 cases above from within the past month alone.

Something being in a skip or left on your own property doesn't mean it's fair game.

Yes, you might not care about people taking stuff from your skip - I wouldn't either if I was just using it to get rid of rubbish - but people should ask before taking stuff because they have no way of knowing whether you're ok with it.

As if the police will be REMOTELY arsed with this!
Most skips here are on the road and scrap collectors can and do take stuff- plus old timbers for firewood.

Stuff in a skip is what the householder doesn't want.

It's outrageous.

The idea of people being able to use their own land, as they see fit to store stuff in the way they want to. Without any danger of other people making off with it.

This!!!!

Tell you what, you do this then if someone nicks it, try making a claim for it on your insurance and set a timer to measure how long they laugh at you.

Anyone who was going to sell the scrap would not be putting it in a skip.

totally normal round where I live, people take stuff out and they chuck stuff in. When I had a couple of new radiators fitted , the plumber put the old ones out on the pavement and they were gone within 20 minutes which was just as I had anticipated

This!

If you put stuff in what is widely recognised as an outdoors open top bin, you should not be surprised if people assume you do not want what's in it.

Just the same as you should not be surprised when bin men empty the bins you leave out.

An open top bin cannot be expected to be recognised by others as 'storage.'

Be grateful they are removing stuff, not putting stuff in.

We still have a rag and bone man where I am in the Black Country, still on horse and cart, still shouts out “raaaaag and booooooon, raaaaaaaag and booooooooon” and rings a bell (and I always think, “bring out your dead” when he does it 😂)

He took my old cooker the other week. It feels like living in 1912 when he comes past.