Stealing from the trash, what else! (Miami, West Palm Beach: live, homeless, beach)

[Hero]

He'll stop stealing when driving around in the truck eats into his pillaged profits

[MiamiVice1985]

The poor guy's trying to make a little money to feed his family, leave him be.

[PBCboy]

You barely get any money at all for those cans. He probably spends more money in gas than he gets for those.

[♥♥PRINC3Ss♥♥]

It really depends where you live. Gated communities should not have this problem. Some suburbs don't have this problem either.

If the ghettos are right next to you, you will always have those problems. Thieves don't like to drive a lot, especially with gas prices. I heard people steal the hoses sometimes.

I don't live in a gated community because I can't afford it but the ghettos are not THAT close from here. My ex-neighbors left a brand new bicycle in front of their home, and stayed there for many months. The mail man leaves packages in front of our home all the time. Never had anything stolen.

[Wild Style]

he isn't hurting anyone or leaving a mess so I don't see what the worry is?

[PBCboy]

Some people in my neighborhood, from time to time, get their actual BINS stolen. Why the hell would you want to steal someone's recycling bin? I'd assume people that would do something like that would not recycle in the first place.

[rogerbacon]

Originally Posted by Wild Style

he isn't hurting anyone or leaving a mess so I don't see what the worry is?

A thief is a thief. A person that would steal aluminium cans would certainly steal something more valuable if it was outside and accessable. We shouldn't permit stealing just because it appears that it "isn't hurting anyone".

[MiamiVice1985]

Aren't recycle bins free?

[copacetic]

This is happening everywhere not just Miami. On financial markets commodities are making new highs every day. That includes copper, aluminum. In Detroit, these kind of thieves are going to abandoned homes (which there is a massive surplus of in Detroit) and stripping the homes of all the metal including copper piping. This is also starting to happen with gasoline. I remember when I was a little kid (the last time gas prices were this high), people would siphon gasoline from cars. Apparently this crime has made a comeback.

[PBCboy]

Originally Posted by rogerbacon

A thief is a thief. A person that would steal aluminium cans would certainly steal something more valuable if it was outside and accessable. We shouldn't permit stealing just because it appears that it "isn't hurting anyone".

Oh wow, cans you're getting rid of anyway. Give me a break

Here's a helpful hint: don't leave brand new HDTV's sitting out on your front lawn in the trash. If you leave an old couch, computer, whatever to be picked up for the trash you can bet it'll be gone the next day. And I find nothing wrong with that. It's better than some people are getting use out of my old items then them just going to a landfill.