Personaly I think people should use the curent laws to there advantage. Put it in an encloser...cops cant open it. Take it to the curb as close to pick up time as posable. Not put incriminating or personal affects in it without first shredding it and whipping your a** with it. Make them not want it. Burn barrels and compost piles are nice.

There is no trash pickup here so no worries on my part.

R35

Depends.

There's sidewalk shopping, sidewalk snooping and sidewalk stealing.

I'm a compulsive sidewalk SHOPPER. I'll tear the carb off a discarded mower(or whatever I need) out of someone's trash.

Sidewalk SNOOPING is a privacy violation, to be sure, but if a BG id stupid enough to toss out incriminating evidence, TS.

Sidewalk STEALING, OTOH, is trying to scarf up credit card info, identity stuff, etc for criminal purposes and should be treated as criminal activity.

I got the wheelchair wheels I used for the shooters cart I use at Perry out of someone's trash.(Of course, I tell everyone I stole then from a handicapped guy's wheelchair when he was in the shitter! Makes for a better story.)

The mayor's trash - fair game

The Chief of Police's trash - go for it

My trash - keep your hands off....


WOW... I have a double standard for once....

actually, I think it should be off limits

I just realized that I missed my chance to make the SHTF. I shoulda just said I
got the wheels out of the trash.

Then IM'd Wheelchair Militia to start a thread about some asshole swiping the wheels offa his wheelchair while he was taking a dump.[:)]

WOW! THAT would have started something!

[b]Abandoned property is abandoned property.[/b]

It 'belongs' to no one.

Let's not change a thousand years of law just because the Gambino Family doesn't know how to shred their incriminating papers!

Or maybe you don't know how to do so!

BTW, I am in favor of law enforcement!

I love law enforcement!

I think law enforcement is great!

But only when the laws that are being enforced are fair and reasonable!

Eric The(Lawful)Hun[>]:)]

I live on a private road. I pay a private hauler to pick up garbage twice a week.  If somebody drives up my road and starts sorting through my garbage, aren't they trespassing?

If they drive onto your private property, they surely are! Throw them off immediately!

Most of us, however, live in cities, towns, etc., where the trash cans are placed on easements, etc.

Are you guys interested in seeing that the [b] GUYS[/b] are being caught and successfully prosecuted?

I am, and if those cretins can't remember that trash belongs to no one, then so much the better!

Eric The(Lawful,Usually)Hun[>]:)]

I don't think of garbage as abandoned property.

Most of us pay for a service, either through a tax or a specific fee, designed to dispose of waste. It would seem reasonable that your garbage would be disposed of in a manner that would prevent personal information and items meant to be disposed of from ever returning. You are, after all, paying for the waste to be disposed.

I don't mind someone grabbing old lawnmower parts, but a misguided public official searching through my garbage is unreasonable to me. JMHO

I think most people pay for garbage service with a reasonable expectation of privacy concerning the contents of the garbage.

Edited to correct spelling error.

I take mine to a county trash dump.  I set aside certain "stuff" like broken lawn chairs or anything that someone might want to fix and use.  

I wouldn't be too happy to see someone on my property going though the trash on my trailer I use to haul it off with.  But if someone knocked on my door and asked me if I was going to through something away and could they have it.  I would be happy to.

Rambosky

Post from pkennedy -

Cool!

But the Courts think otherwise!

So do I!

Remember the Bill of Rights protects papers, etc., that are in [u]your[/u] possession.

If you leave your little black book with drug connections, amounts owed, etc., on a table at the Bada-Bing Club, and someone turns it in to the authorities....Well....

Yes, one might suppose that, and yet you already know that folks are going through the trash looking for that might be valuable to them....like old lawnmowers, etc.  

Nothing 'misguided' about that public official at all!

Do you know how many child molesters have been convicted because of panties from their victims that were thrown away in the trash by the perpetrator?

Have a problem with THAT?

I don't!

Eric The(Reasonable)Hun[>]:)]

I am a veteran dumpster diver and trash pile junkie.

I've found everything you can think of, INCLUDING a Stevens model 67 12 gauge pump shotgun.  (Sorry, no AR's or pistols yet...but there's hope!)

In my area,  legally speaking, trash placed for collection is the property of the waste management company that picks it up, but they do not assert any exclusive rights or forbid people from browsing and taking what they want.  I know of no case where police have ever bugged anyone over scavenging in trash piles.  In fact, they just don't care as long as you don't make a mess.

If you have sensitive info that is to be thrown out, buy yourself a paper shredder or toast it on the barbecue grille.  

Just a few days ago I found a working Compaq computer that I thought MIGHT be fast enough for me to do something with.  So I grabbed it out of the trash pile, took it home, set it up, and fired it up.

The previous owner left a LOT of data on it that I would not want to leave on, myself.  Like his resume,   family letters,  etc.   If I bothered to memorize it,  I would know a lot about him and his family.

I'll erase that sensitive data and drop this 486 computer off with a thrift shop.

CJ

"One man's trash is another man's treasure!"

Dow burning barrel or pit mean anything.

The courts ruled a long time ago that police can go thru any garbage or trash set out for collection.  They can then use anything that they find in a court of law.  But proving that you put that item in the garbage is another matter.

The Fourth Amendment does not prohibit the warrentless search and seizure of garbage left for collection outside the curtilage of a home.

California v Greenwood (486 U.S. 35)

FWIW, I remember hearing years ago something about the FBI using a garbage truck run by SA's to collect the garbage of mafia members to take back to headquarters to go through later.  That would make a great Soprano's episode

Hmmmm...this is an interesting question because a lot of information can be found in a person's trash..

Here is what I think...if the cops want to search through a persons trash once it's been placed on a curb side..they should get a warrant..however once the trash has been dumped out of a truck and into a landfill..then it should be accessible to anyone.

I know that this sounds like I am splitting hairs..(and I am..) however I note that the PURPOSE behind the 4th Amendment was to make it DIFFICULT for the "Authorities" to search your belongings, premises..(and in this day and age) obtain information on you.

However...the above is NOT going to happen..because most court Justices side with the Government and could care less about Individual Rights.

Sooo....GET and USE a Paper Shredder!
And if you don't think that that gives you enough security..burn the trash..and mix the ashes and THEN dump it in the trash can.

There was an article posted somewhere (here I think) that touched on that subject.
A female cop was jailed because the police whent through her trash and tested a used tampon or pad and found traces of drugs and found ather minor paraphanellia in the trash.
So the local news team decided to go on a trash run themselves and hit the mayor, a judge and I believe a coulcil woman.
The mayor wasn't really angry, but the council woman went nuts and so did the judge (if I remember it all correctly). Anyone got that link still??
But it all boils down to a double standard.
It's okay for the cops, but if you do it, you'll have your ass handed to you...

If you get a credit card receipt on thermal paper (the thin, shiny stuff used to be used in old fax machines), then you can quickly and easily render it unredable by passing a cigarette lighter underneath it.  It will turn black within a second.

I did this lots before I finally bought a paper shredder.  Now any credit card receipts, pay stubs, bills, receipts--anything with personal information or my SS# on it goes into the shredder.  For only $40, it was a great buy.

-Nick Viejo.

Not true.

Maybe 20 years ago or so, some magazine reporters went through the garbage of several celebrities to include Henry Kissenger and published the results.

They got away with it.

However, IIRC, they stopped due to reader backlash.