this is stealing ?

[shedcoupe]

Okay, the verge scavengers do make a mess sometimes but this is a bit much -

"A man has been arrested after taking a vacuum from a pile of hard rubbish in Melbourne's east.

Mooroolbark police interviewed the 58-year-old Lilydale man early this morning.

He is expected to be charged on summons.

It's understood he took a vacuum from a nature strip in Chirnside Park.

A police spokesman said hard rubbish became council property once it was put on a nature strip."

http://tools.themercury.com.au/stori...aking-news.php

[Kryton]

Yes, its stealing.
Rubbish left out is council property.
Taking property without permission is theft.

[LightningStrike]

Maybe that's why it takes Council so damn long to pick the stuff up - they are concerned about their criminal liability and have to get a legal opinion for each pickup!

[Professor Farnsworth]

what a load of rubbish.

[Ford_The_Win]

Not necessarily a bad thing...maybe it wasn't the first time he had done it? Maybe he was making a mess? Maybe he's a compulsive hoarder with a house full of junk? There's always more than meets the eye.

[buggo]

Originally Posted by davway

Yes, its stealing.
Rubbish left out is council property.
Taking property without permission is theft.

[KITBAG]

It not the council that picks it up it is “contractors”

I have picked up lots of lawnmowers and other goods in my time .
I have always asked the house owner to bring it back in their front yard, then I load it in the wagon……………….

[Geez Louise]

Our council has stopped doing hard rubbish collections now. You can still have your hard rubbish picked up twice a year, but you have to book a time and council will come and pick it up.

I see people going through stuff on the verge all the time. I personally do not see anything wrong with it. One man's trash is another man's treasure. Maybe councils are concerned about getting hit with a law suit if someone trips over the stuff...Who knows!

[shedcoupe]

It can go wrong. Years ago I cut up some steel with a hacksaw to get it onto the back of the ute (long verandah railings made of flat bar) and a woman came out -turns out the steel had just been dropped off by a salvage yard for a reno ....
After ascertaining that hubby had a welder I left, though I'd have welded it back together were it necessary.

But I did get enough doors and aluminium windows to build a house, and enough 4x2 timber to build a lot of other things.

[SEZ213]

I rethought my initial response to this, and decided a scathing attack was unthoughtful and not totally pc, so the pc version is this...

The guy has broken the law, albeit a law that isn't very cleverly thought out. I still think the police should be out catching the real criminals. I wonder if this court appearance will constitute as a waste of tax payers money?

[XR6_661]

Barely news worthy…

Poor fella picked up something that someone had thrown out….Probably didn’t even know it was against the law…Who gives.

[ea90_S]

maybe time to assign a security guard to each house during hard rubbish collection to protect that precios rubbish!

[shedcoupe]

"Yes, its stealing.
Rubbish left out is council property.
Taking property without permission is theft."

I have to confess a vast and terrible crime.
Once I received a kiwi 20c piece in the change, and instead of taking it to a bank to exchange for the equivalent in aussie money, I ruthlessly and callously and illegally passed it on to some poor unsuspecting shopkeeper.
I still have nightmares about it.

And once I was handed a j***t at party and criminally handed it along - now I'm a d**g supplier and should have all my assets taken away.

[RepSpec]

if you read the brochure that they send around when it is time for pick ups it says quite clearly on it that once the rubbish is on the nature strip, it becomes council property and is theft.
well in the city of casey they tell you. still see people in there vans doing it tho.

[XR6_661]

Originally Posted by shedcoupe

"Yes, its stealing.
Rubbish left out is council property.
Taking property without permission is theft."

I have to confess a vast and terrible crime.
Once I received a kiwi 20c piece in the change, and instead of taking it to a bank to exchange for the equivalent in aussie money, I ruthlessly and callously and illegally passed it on to some poor unsuspecting shopkeeper.
I still have nightmares about it.

And once I was handed a j***t at party and criminally handed it along - now I'm a d**g supplier and should have all my assets taken away.

[CFOUR]

he should have said he was cleaning up the mess then sent the council a bill.

[Yellow_Festiva]

If stealing from council rubbish collections is true theft, and therefore a 'crime' then I should be locked away for a gazillion years after the years of blatant pillaging I did as a lad with the milk crate wired to the handle bars of my BMX...

This is news??? What a bloody joke.

[Bud Bud]

Originally Posted by shedcoupe

It can go wrong. Years ago I cut up some steel with a hacksaw to get it onto the back of the ute (long verandah railings made of flat bar) and a woman came out -turns out the steel had just been dropped off by a salvage yard for a reno ....
After ascertaining that hubby had a welder I left, though I'd have welded it back together were it necessary.

But I did get enough doors and aluminium windows to build a house, and enough 4x2 timber to build a lot of other things.

Are you serious!!!! I would have been pi$$ed if that was my steel. You really needed to replace it if it was new stock intended for a reno and you did not get permission to take it in the first place.

Bud Bud

[shedcoupe]

It was an old verandah rail from a salvage yard, pretty scrappy.
Sure I was wrong to cut it up, but I thought it was just another lump of scrap like the rest up and down the verge - an innocent mistake which I would have fixed if required (though I didn't leave a phone #).
The guy would've had to cut it to fit his job anyway.
Salvaged stuff isn't new stock.

[Ben73]

So councils are so tight that they complain when people steal rubbish from them?
Lol, Pretty much as tight(and stupid) as this idiot at my work who wants to put a scooter on gas to save money.

[ch33z1l]

My sister lives in Surry Hills, Melbourne, and it's apparently a common thing to leave your unwanted junk on the nature strip to get collected by people who may find it valuable. She picked up some bar stools which came up pretty good once they were cleaned.

Not a one off thing

[BENT_8]

That'd be about right too, years ago i got fine from the council for parking my car on the nature strip out the front of my house, but its ok for the council to leave THEIR hard waste on the nature strip for days and no one says a thing...

[Auslandau]

Another typical news story that gets blown out of proportion with so many saying it is theft blah blah blah...... So another myth to bust and put things back into perspective.

Main point is ..... It is not theft nor is against any law to remove hard rubbish from nature strips. As long as it has been discarded by the home owner it now belongs to no one ..... Not even the council. There responsibility is to remove it but they do not own it. In other words ..... It is up for grabs

Secondly...... The bloke who was taken to the police station was found in the early hours acting suspiciously with a car full of stuff and taken in for questioning as he did not want to state where he got the stuff from. He has been released once he confessed be took it from hard rubbish as he himself thought he was not allowed to take it. He was not charged with any offense

So in other words despite what many say above, don't let the facts get in the way of a good story

[shedcoupe]

thanks for the heads-up

[bananas]

Originally Posted by BENT_8

That'd be about right too, years ago i got fine from the council for parking my car on the nature strip out the front of my house, but its ok for the council to leave THEIR hard waste on the nature strip for days and no one says a thing...

and if we have to mow it i say its our property
:P

[GhiaEB]

I used to do hard rubbish collection back in my younger years and anything of value was kept by the guys collecting it. But the big thing was metal. Nowadays there are generaly 2 trucks that go around (contrators) one is for waste and the other is scrap metal. The contractors quote so low these days that most of the profits from the collection comes from the scrap metal.

I can tell you about some amazing things I got when I was working for a contractor, including a 1968 Triumph that had sat in a shed for 20yrs, still had the 1970's rego sticker on the windscreen, a jet ski and heaps of other items.

Cheers

[ThaFlash]

any crims out there? if you get pulled over with some goods on board, place it on the nature strip becasue as soon as you do "it becomes the council's property"


a legal technicality in a court of law?

[vztrt]

Man won't be charged.

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/va...322-1c4d9.html

Nice to see that the 'real' criminals are being targeted.

[Jim Goose]

Mr plod sets it straight...

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2...22/3170723.htm

Superintendent Forti says the idea that items abandoned on nature strips are council property is an urban myth.

"If the property has been abandoned, it doesn't have an owner any more. Anybody can come and take it and it's not theft," he said.

Len Cox, the deputy mayor of Yarra Ranges Council, where the man was arrested, says the council does not know what prompted police to get involved.

But he also rejected suggestions that hard rubbish belonged to council once placed on a nature strip.

"Council does not have a local law to prohibit people taking items put out for hard waste collection," he said in a statement.

"Any items placed out for hard waste collection remain the property of the resident until collected by the contractor."

[Bucknaked]

So if we find a holden on the nature strip, we should do the council a favour, remove it and take it straight to the tip.