Police Arrest Me For Taking a Bike Out Of The GARBAGE!! "North Arlington NJ"

That seems to be the attitude coming from the OP. No respect for anything.

So what EXACTLY is/was the charge?

Why did you include CAPATALISED "flag waving patriot" in your insult?
Being a flag waving patriot is a high compliment.
You didn't make sense and your comment makes me glad you got busted and I don't trust your story

On the other hand and on topic; I see tv shows where the cops wait till 'evidence' is thrown in the trash to go get it because thrown away; 'it's trash'.
So I think maybe there is more to this story.

what bothers me about this is that homeless people pick through the garbage all day long every day, for clothes, meals, whatever. The cops don't do shit about that because they know the homeless dude has no money to pay a fine. If they see a regular joe pick an item out of the trash though, they get dollar signs in their eyes and get right on it. Here's your ticket bitch, welcome to America.

if I put something on the curb for the garbage men to take, I would be happy that someone took it, to maybe fix it up and use it or whatever they do with it, at least it's doing someone some good instead of sitting in a landfill.

I'm also amazed at some of the trolls in this thread, how can you possibly be so mad about people picking your trash, that you would go and angrily respond to a thread by someone else just because it loosely resembles some pet peeve of your own pointless existence. If your mad at the people picking YOUR garbage, then go yell at THEM, not at this guy who has already been punished for what he did. Get a life. Damn.

Story seems simple to me. OP might have acted like a douche and got arrested. Different laws for cops and for citizens as police are not held to same standard and regularly go through trash for evidence. If OP was calm and respectful he most likely would have been fine but this is a problem in and of itself.

I'm shocked at the responses in this thread as it was my understanding that trash is public domain and if there is something in your trash you don't want touched it either needs to be shredded or not put out to the curb. Instead of having clear common sense laws we have a plethora of laws that "law enforcement officers" (notice not police) have to enforce at will based on how they feel about the individual and how much trouble they want to put them through.

Too much power? Yup.

Face it OP. YOU ARE A THIEF!! Just because it is in the trash does not make it free for the taking.

YOU ARE A COMMON THIEF. Period.

Be a man and face up to what you have done.

Knocked on a strangers' door and asked if I could have the rug in their trash. Yep. Got it cleaned and valued at $700-1000. Not bad for garbage picks.

How do you know a picker is just after a discarded bike and not some bill with your credit card number on it? Bank statement, discarded expired drivers license, whatever.

I don't want somebody going through my trash and whenever they have done so, they left me an awful mess to pick up. That's how I knew they did it.

At least they could ask.

What kind of a bike was it?

Once on the curb, its not private anymore..

Had someone try to steal entire garbage bags once. Popped his truck and was loading them in the back. Strangely enough it was one of those psychic moments and I stopped him.

Use a shredder Bluebird ; ) Regardless if someone is coming to your trash, they can still steal a credit card receipt from the landfill...

That's someone looking to get background info on you. Believe it.

In my state, your trash is public property once it's on the curb.

I have been setting my trash out for years,and someone comes by and takes it every time.The police refuse to do anything about it.You would think they would be american enough to come knock on my door and ask permission first.What has this country come to?I have taken the license plate number of the perpertraters,yet the police still refuse to investigate.I'm a good american,I over consume to help keep this economy stay strong,and my pile of trash I lay at the curb twice a week proves my patriotism,yet the police turn a blind eye to these theives.I'm seriously considering laying in wait for these filthy perpertrators myself,but I can't seem to get my fat ass out of my lounge chair.I would like to say more,but my favorite reality show is about to come on.If you have less then 3 trash cans at the curb,you are very un american,and if you allow others to take from them and reuse these items,you are the reason this economy is failing.(burp)

Was just about to say this. Your info isn't being stolen from your trash. It's being found at a dump because they know you are too damn lazy or stupid to properly discard your sensitive info.

Our landfills are supervised as you have to pay to dump there. Used to be $35 for small truck.

Not to be an ass, but if you put any of those items into your trash without shredding them, you deserve to have your identity stolen.

Personally, I burn all paperwork that has any chance of giving away personal info once it gets to the landfill.

I want to disagree so bad...but he's got a point.

I think one of the biggest problems is that people don't know it's against the law to use things from others' trash.

I'm pretty sure that law is there to protect people from having sensitive information stolen from their garbage.

Simple; shred the paperwork if you are worried
and yeah people are thoughtless pigs

NOT if you put it on the curb. It's the same thing as walking into a food court and dumping the content of your wallet out on a table and walking away. Free shit...

The same assholes digging through the trash usually are the ones that pull copper off of roofs (A/C) and wiring out of street lights. The police know this. OPie broke the law that's pretty cut and dry.

I guess you missed those people putting back together shredded documents from the police department used as confetti in the Thanksgiving Day parade in NYC?

Names, social security numbers and so forth.

So shredding is way over-rated.

your right about that. this country is going downhill fast.....

That's the voice of reason. As soon as something hits the curb, it's trash, but to be realistic, asking is *polite* and then it definitely wouldn't be stealing in any way. And you'd have the argument with the law that you asked.

Me and my Dad, the ultimate tinkerer, used to go around the neighborhood on the one day a month when you could throw away bigger things like appliances. Dad went through the depression and hated to see things go to waste. We'd get refrigerators, washing machines, dishwashers, sump pumps, tons of lawnmowers and snow blowers. He'd remove the motors and compressors and repair neighbors *stuff* with the parts and motors he scrapped. And he always went to the door and told the people what we were doing.

The end result was people got rid of the trash, we got parts and I learned about small engines, motors, how *stuff* worked and made some go-karts and mini-bikes that I sold and our neighbors got their appliances repaired. Dad had a good job as an elevator repairman, but hated waste and loved to tinker. And was always enjoying himself making and fixing things for friends, and some extra (not that much) extra money. Depression era people are like that.

PLUS it was a time (mostly the 60's, where you weren't putting appliance repair people out of work. There was plenty of it.

Nothing wrong with asking. And it proves you're not a thief. If you don't like the system, fight it, or learn to legally get around it. It might be ridiculous, but you'll stay out of trouble.

or the same sort of dicks who will help themselves too stuff, that is not trash and use the it looked like trash too me excuse.

or swipe packages off the porch

or keep a notes on places to rob/burgle when the owners are not home

Which is one reason I said in that same post that I burn my stuff...

I understand that shredded paper is not the endall of privacy... I also understand that it's not trivial to put shredded paper back together - especially if you use a good shredder.

Feel free to not shred your stuff since someone somewhere can put it back together if they have the time, it really won't bother me.

I'll keep doing what I can to make it harder to steal my identity, and you can keep making it easier for them to steal yours.

as usual glp is full of shit. the city recycles the stuff and sells it which is exactly what the pickers do. what is the difference? glp is racist.

the reason its illegal is because the city loses money