mrken30

We have a local problem here with recycling theft. People are breaking into neighbors yards and stealing bottles and cans. Is it out of order for people to be threatening to shoot these perpetrators? I know it's probably very scary to have someone wandering around in your back yard at 3am.

How do you convince the legislators that increasing the refunds on bottles and cans was a bad idea.

I have now changed to drinking cider and wine because these is no bottle deposit on those items. They can just go in curbside recycling.

petitefrancaise

Keep the recycling bin in your garage??
Move to a better neighbourhood?
Get a dog?
Floodlights with a sensor for your backyard
Put the bin right outside on the front driveway so they can just take it without worrying you?

or yeah, just shoot them - after all, this is 'Merica!

mrken30

The houses around here are $600k +, I guess that's a poor neighborhood for some.
The dog solution might cause issues with noise. The Coyotes set of enough dogs at night.
Like the idea of floodlights, makes seeing your target much easier.
If you leave them out the front, you wake up in the morning with garbage all over the street, where they tip out the bins. There may also be HOA/Ordinances about leaving out bins on non trash days.

I can pass these suggestions onto the neighbors, thanks.

scrubbedexpat091

Certainly cant base housing prices as to what areas are good and bad here..lol.. We live in an up and coming area and houses are a million plus and condos 640k but its not what people would call good. Not horrible but some odd characters around.


I purposely leave the bottles and cans out for homeless or someone will take them so I dont have to. 5 cents a can isnt worth my time since we have so few.

Regular trash is a secured area and locked behind a door.

petitefrancaise

It must be scary. I would be anxious.

I have a dog and when she barks at the back door during the night, I am scared. It's usually a skunk that's hanging around.

When I first moved here, I let her out when she barked, just like I did in France. When I told my neighbours I did this, they freaked out. Warning me of burglars with guns that would shoot the dog, the fact that I had opened a secure door etc. So, I don't open the door anymore and I have floodlights with sensors.

mrken30

It seems to have got worse since the deposit went up from 5c to 10c. I agree 5c is not worth my time. We used to leave them out, then got fedup with cleaning up the broken glass in the street. Now they just go in the curbside bin. We have a secure fence that partly consists of barbed wire. We don't have too many issues with human intruders.

mrken30

I know security cameras are becoming more popular here. Several parcel thieves have been caught recently. Maybe that would be a suggestion.

Some neighbors are quite concerned for their safety due to the type of person that would break in to steal a few dollars worth of bottles.

rpjs

We put our recycling out at the curb and it's quite common for someone to come by the night before or early before the DPW arrives and picks through for the most lucrative bottles/cans. They're not coming onto our property and so long as they don't make a mess, I really couldn't care less. I suppose the argument could be that they're depriving the village of revenue but frankly the village taxes are so high that if the village really cares, it can pay to enforce it.

mrken30

Does that cause your neighborhood to become attractive to undesirable types? We have turf wars here just on begging spots. I think there has been some issues with who owns what streets for taking recycling. We would rather not attract those types of people.

Teaandtoday5

You would need quite a lot of empties to be worth a turf war. Not in the US so I'm not really in a position to shoot at people, but I did once happen to put out the recycling at the same time as the man collecting empties came along. He asked politely if I minded, and said he was careful to never make a mess. He was a pensioner,supplementing his income. I put them separately to make it easier for him after that.

mrken30

There is at least one couple that fills the best part of an E350 truck with cans. I would hate to have to deposit that many cans, but they seem to have a system going when other people get paid for depositing the cans. The limit is only $15 per person , per store in returns.

lansbury

We had some bags of cans stolen. Put a motion detector across the driveway and next time they came back the beeping woke me up. Was calling 911 while they were still walking off my property, and they were lit up with blue lights before they got out of the road.

Motion detector from $20 - $50 at Lowes.

Giantaxe

This is the way it plays out here in SF:

https://thebolditalic.com/san-franci...o-1bd6733aaab5

I'd say my recycling bin is typically rifled through within minutes of it being put on the street for collection.

Smartyy

Increase basic security first. Locks on gates, security cameras, signs etc. Lights and camera combo are great.

Absolutely not. In my view, they are trespassing on your property. You do not know the reason there are there, if they are armed or if they are there to do anything else. So by you having your gun ready, you are merely taking an extra step for your own safety.

mrken30

I did hear that some neighbors were putting mouse/rat traps in their recycling bins. Other neighbors advised him to stop.

I suggested they get rid of the cash incentive, and ask the stores to provide the redemption in form of a voucher that could be used to pay for garbage service or donated to charity.