Today (trash day) marked the 3rd time I've seen a strange guy in a white truck hauling a trailer trolling our neighborhood collecting junk. He takes couches, lawn mowers, old t.v.s etc... from people's trash and then hurriedly puts them on the back of his trailer and proceeds to haul ass out of the area. I'm sure he probably sells/pawns most of this stuff and I have no problem with that-it's just the way he does it seems shady to me and furthermore, he drives recklessly in a community full of kids walking to school/waiting for the bus. Does anyone else have a problem with this?

Interesting, I put out two old kids bikes this morning (I live a block from the golf course), and when I came home for lunch, the bikes were missing but the trash hadn't been picked up. I put them out after all the school buses had gone, so I know a kid hadn't taken them.

Souds like this guy got them.

I'm glad I saw this because I put a broken vacuum cleaner out next to my trash can this morning and it had magically disappeared when I got home-before the garbage men had been there! I think I've seen the same guy taking an old chair from my neighbors house a few weeks ago too, shady dude.
Attachments:

I saw him yesterday in Ashburn in one of the townhouse communities. His white truck was piled higher than the top of the cab with junk he had rescued from the trash set out in the neighborhood. He may be doing what they do in states where bottles and cans can be collected along the roads and sold for 2-5 cents a bottle back to the stores (some states have a law mandating a deposit that is added to what you pay for that stuff, most people don't bother to take them back to get it returned). The thing is, I am not aware that Virginia recycling or junk companies will pay for trashed/broken things like this. He nabbed a broken sweeper and a bicycle from trash awaiting pickup and had a difficult time trying to find space on the high pile to put his stuff. I don't see him securing all that stuff into the truck, so he is an accident waiting to happen if he gets on a high speed road that has some curves!

There is a fake charity that has been robo-calling people all over this area wanting people to donate goods. They usually give a story that the stuff will be going to poor people in (name your poor country) for donation purposes. It might be the same outfit (calls from 800-296-1122); the business was researched by someone and the results posted on 800 notes website--apparently they use false charity claims then send out trucks to collect everything people donate, and have discovered that most people around here just throw it all out in the trash so it can be collected easily, then resold. They have set up chains of second hand thrift stores (ie Apogee Retail, Unique Thrift stores. Value Village, and on and on, by which they resell the trash and stuff they collect--may be a new creative junk business idea going around due to the economy, and they could be paying these guys for going around and collecting all the junk. The original proprietor supposedly started out this business in Savage MD and is expanding it all over. If it is him, his new stores are popping up under different names everywhere.

I saw two men yesterday afternoon going through and searching through my neighbor’s trash...one was walking around strangely and the other was following him in a Grey Truck in the Stone Ridge area....isn’t this illegal? I was very tempted to call the non-emergency police. I do not feel comfortable having strange people searching through my neighborhood. Anyone know the legality on this topic?

You people have seriously never heard of a trash picker?

Growing up we always had these guys coming through the neighborhood on trash day. They'd usually grab anything they saw had some value.

Old Broken Bike? They get it for free, put a few minutes of labor in to it, and can maybe sell it for $15-20 in a poorer community.

A lot of the bigger items you think are just junk, may have some scrap value.

Now couple that with the fact that LoCo is on the wealthier side of the coin and you can imagine some of the stuff we throw out may actually hold a lot of value to these people.

As for legality, I thought once you put something out on the curb for the trash man, it is now free to take. So any person can take it and do whatever they want with it.

Just be sure that all your personal files and documents are completely shredded or destroyed before you recycle them or put them out in the trash. Once they have your name and address, they can pay an information bureau or data merchant pennies to get the whole scoop on you, resell it, and there goes your identity!

One of these guys took a bag on our front porch labelled for a veterans organization yesterday. They case the streets and then take shit. Called the sheriff, they said if they are caught, it's a larceny charge as well as trespassing. They also said that they may be going into open garages and taking stuff as well. If you see them take anything, note the plate number and call LCSO.