People never cease to amaze me, that's pretty bold. If it was marked free, then I'd take it, but if not, I'd ask. I've never seen anything around here where I've been interested in asking about, but if I did, I'd get their permission.

OK,I thought crazy stuff like this only happened to ME :) Seriously,though, I purposely set things out for people to take near my garbage cans. If I tape a "free" sign on it, it gets taken quicker. I always wonder if something is free if it's out by the road, you never can tell....especially in a rural area where children leave their toys out,lol! I'll get my husband to go back and find out if it's free if I want something.

HA! Interesting! My feeling is, if it's out on the curb, it's free for the taking, especially in a town where there is no law against it - we live between two towns, one allows picking, the other does not. IF the person happens to be outside, I might say "Do you mind if I take this?" but if they're not out - all's fair game. But I AM still wondering about the wheelbarrow my kids brought home one time a few years ago during large item pick up..... It DID have a flat tire, but an innertube fixed that. It's a really nice one! And some people use their wheelbarrows to put their trash out in.....?????

On the other hand, they also brought home a couch with recliners in both ends. I am afraid of soft furniture out for trash - did it have animals on it, is it full of bugs?? So I said no way is it coming in my house. So....what to do with it? We ended up calling some friends who lived in the same part of town as that week's big pick up and asked if we could dump it at their pile. They said yes. It wasn't there an hour before someone else picked it up!

I love curb shopping!

Arlene

I think that was really bold for someone to return her garbage! Once you take it, it's your problem! You have to find a new home for it...not return it. Geesh! LOL

Just remembered that last week, I was searching Blogger Blogs and found a blog where the lady lived in NYC. She only had a few posts but what she did was find things in the garbage, take them home, paint them up and apply jewels to them and take them back and sit them back out with the trash! LOL She had this high chair that she painted gold and added jewels all around for "your little prince or princess" lol. Or she took an old VCR and printer and painted them up and made them pretty. I wonder if they still even worked? It was kind of funny, but I didn't save the link!! LOL

I've never heard of anyone returning things! Wow! Kind of funny, but still..you wonder about people. At least they left and nice thank you note. ;) LOL

The California v. Greenwood case in the U.S. Supreme Court held that there is no common law expectation of privacy for discarded materials. Means open season to me if the stuff is on the curb, esp if it is by a stack of trash.

As for returning the item, totally a jerk move. You want something then it's your problem to get rid of it yourself later.

"he only had a few posts but what she did was find things in the garbage, take them home, paint them up and apply jewels to them and take them back and sit them back out with the trash!"

Sounds like those guys on HGTV...Junk Brothers. ;)

In my city, you are not allowed to curb shop! It is against the law and you can be fined for it. I think this is absolutely ridiculous and I put stuff out all the time for people. If I cant use it and someone else can, fine. Right now, down the street, a young couple just put out all their child's riding toys she outgrew..about 5 items. In no time, they were gone. I would rather see someone use it than it be in the landfill.

Curb shop/ don't curb shop I don't really care and I do not understand people who care if someone else can use what they don't want anymore, but bringing it back?? That is ridiculously low.

OMG, I can't believe they returned it. Now that's just dont' right rude curb shopping if you ask me. I've taken things and then put them out to the curb again - my own curb though, not bring it back.

We live in a Mobile Home park for 55 and over, a really nice one with golf course, country club, view of Mt Rainier, but even old people are thieves, and it doesn't even matter if it's not on the curb they will come and take it, from the garden or whatever. Like I said in my other post some 80ish old man first drove up in his car and walked around our empty lot (I was still moving some landscaping things) the old shed was still up with a few more gardening things in it; anyway he came back with his golf cart took our ladder, some cedar wood stain a hosta, and I'm missing some terracotta planters. All this with 4 people watching him, so they described him and his golf cart. I drove around and found him, but he didn't answer the door so the manager called him. His excuse was my partner told him it was ok. You know you got caught fess up and don't make it worse by lying.

That sure took some cajones! I think the unwritten rule (and I think we have all written it here) is if you take something it is YOURS. That was a rude move.

I can kind of understand why some municipalities forbid curb shopping. I remember cleaning out my mother's house years ago. Anything decent, we took to Goodwill. The rest of the stuff was put in garbage bags and put down by the trash. Well lo and behold, the next day the bags were torn open and the contents scattered all over the yard. It didn't look like they took anything, just rummaged thru it and left it blowing around the yard. I picked everything up, rebagged it and the same thing happened the next night. We ended up putting things in the garage until trash pick up day.

People can be incredibly rude!

LOL!! It turns out the entire taking/returning with a note was a JOKE perpetrated by the brother. The question remains if the stove is truly gone or if it will again return...

Another OMG, what a trickster - does he know: What goes around, comes around!!! LOL

That is a major OMG how rude can you get. I am glad someone finally took it but still that was terrible.

OMG, that's a great prank, I love it!
My GF recently left a bedroom set out by the curb
for a local charity to pick up. Later in tha day
a gal came along and loaded it up in her station wagon,
later the charity showed up & wondered where it was. Later she finds out that not only was it swiped but one of her neighbors helped her load it!!
It opened a discussion among us & our concensus was that if it doesn't say free you should ask. I did however once take a wheel barrel( to early in the AM to ask)....however it had a flat & a large hole!

OMG, I was laughing so hard I had tears in my eyes! I just love this forum! You guys are so funny!

I'll add my story while I'm at it, we put an old push mower on the side of the road, I think it was actually blown up. Nothing worked to fix it. Well it disappeared in the middle of the night. We thought, wow, someone is gonna be disappointed when they actually try to fix it. A few days later they brought it back while we were gone and left it right in the middle of the driveway. I was a little ticked off because the big trash pickup wasn't for another 5 days. *Shakes head*

I think if it's really close to the side of the road it's free for the taking, I find people are usually relieved that it's not just sitting their for the world to see anymore. lol If it's sitting back to far, I think darn and usually ask or drive away sadly. hehehe

Several years ago, our microwave oven suddenly went crazy. My daughter put a mug of water in to heat up & flames started shooting out inside the oven. It freaked her out! We unplugged it & put it out by the road for trash pick up. That evening, while watching TV, we saw someone stop & pick up the microwave. We were horrified! Apparently, they brought it home & plugged it in because it was back in our yarde in less than 30 minutes. When it came back, we went outside & cut the cord off.

This thread is turning into something really hilarious. I can't believe some of the things folks put out, get taken and then brought back. Toooooooo funny! I'll say it again though - you take it, you own it and if you don't want it then you get rid of it. You don't bring it back.

Sal

OK I will confess that once when we were trash picking, my kids scavenged a plastic lawn chair. Later on down the road (I'm usually the driver), they discovered it was broken (wonder of all wonders, who puts broken things out for trash??) Anyway, I said we were not taking it home. We couldn't remember whose pile we got it from, so we just threw it out at the next pile. The dog started barking and a guy came running out the door yelling at us. I just took off.....

Does that make me bad? It was large pick up all over town...way too many piles to remember details about....LOL

Arlene

Arlene, that is hilarious! Could it be the little old lady making you do such things? he-he

It's a good thing I remembered this thread. When I went rummaging at the 100 Mile Garage Sale along the Mississippi River in Minnesota & Wisconsin a couple of weeks ago, there were a number of free piles after the rummage sales were done. My friend and I went through some of them. We grabbed things at random and looked at it in the car. When we saw something we didn't need, I was tempted to put it in that free pile or another one. And then I remembered this thread! he-he So I took it home thinking I'd give it to Goodwill.

This thread is really hilarious! Our town has big garbage pick up once a month, and everybody is out curb shopping. I've never even thought of taking it back if I decided I didn't want it after all. I just stash it until next month and put it back on the curb. We got a really great find once...with a FREE sing hanging on it. A really nice chimnea!