skip hunters - the law?

just spoke to a work colleague and her husband has a small lockup on an industrial estate and has his waste skip in the public car park. Over the weekend he had a call from the cops telling him theyve arrested 2 men for taking things from his skip. He said they were free to keep what they had taken and didnt want to press charges and asked them why there was all the fuss. Apparently taking from a skip has now become an offence and its cos the waste in it is the property of the chucker till the appointed skip lorry comes to collect it. The increased police vigilence is as a result of identity theft and the possibility that the stolen waste could be retipped elsewhere and this would then make the skip hirer (ie her husband) liable for this illegal tip, if the waste could be attributed to him.

Is this all correct, or were the cops on some tick-box mission? A warning for us skip hunters maybe.

Yeah, correct I'm afraid. When I was at school, a mate was arrested and taken to the nick for taking some double glazed panes from a skip to make a fish tank from for his GCSE design project. . .

And from what I've seen at work, we're liable for the gear in the skip, until the waste is transferred to the designated recipient. Ocassionally we follow the trucks and make sure it isn't flytipped. Less of a problem with metals as the pikies just nick it regardless, which in that case, is a faff, as we get quite a lot for the scrap.

From my experiance of asking, I've never yet been refused goodies from a skip. Including a cool oscilloscope. But that'd just bore the pants off most people. .

sickening really

they cant give anymore than a crime number if something of value is stolen but as soon as someone comes near your skip they are in like a swat team :roll:

i guess its easier to spot a big yellow box than do some real policing

I always ask, that way I have legally aquired:

Carrera Kraken m.bike

Leak 2030 Sandwich speakers (12" drivers, 25kg each!)

Technics separates system

Illegally:

30,000 3.5" DD blank disks in the early '90s from over production runs of Windows 3.11

Sold them at boot sales and made 'loadsa moneeee!'

im struggling to visualise what 30,000 floppies looks like . how much space did it fill ?

St.Ives' industrial estate - 3am, old knackered cars prowling around making sure theres no rozzers...

The back seats/ boot of a 1979 enamel black Capri 2.0S, about 3 trips and skip diving through tonnes of cardboard and paper shreds.

There was over 100,000 in total, another 'team' got the rest.

Up until 3am stripping the labels off - didnt bother formatting them, just flogged them at the Brampton Racecourse car boot.

oh happy days...

legrandefromage":2imrgs6k said:

St.Ives' industrial estate - 3am, old knackered cars prowling around making sure theres no rozzers...

The back seats/ boot of a 1979 enamel black Capri 2.0S, about 3 trips and skip diving through tonnes of cardboard and paper shreds.

There was over 100,000 in total, another 'team' got the rest.

Up until 3am stripping the labels off - didnt bother formatting them, just flogged them at the Brampton Racecourse car boot.

oh happy days...

Click to expand...

legrandefromage":2f7tm3ca said:

I always ask, that way I have legally aquired:

Carrera Kraken m.bike

Leak 2030 Sandwich speakers (12" drivers, 25kg each!)

Technics separates system

Illegally:

30,000 3.5" DD blank disks in the early '90s from over production runs of Windows 3.11

Sold them at boot sales and made 'loadsa moneeee!'

Click to expand...

I'll bet you've got one of those houses from 'how clean is your house' piles of stuff every where

:shock: 30000 disks take up a hell of a lot of room especially if they're in cases,must be near a cubic meter

Must put my hands up to being a bit of a horder too,i just cant see things go to waste when i can sell them on my bay site to pay my fuel bills,if i see it it comes home
I just found the other day ,a BNIB sharp rice steamer,seems somebody never got round to using it and put it out

Legrandefromage
Better hope no Rozzers frequent this site in a non off duty capacity as you've just flagged up yourself as suspect numero uno complete with getaway car description for a major unsolved crime against microsoft :shock:

I wonder if the skip laws apply in the same manner up here in Scotland with our seperate legal system. If it does I can grass up my Dad next time he's being a pain in the **** !

velomaniac":9hn9sfz5 said:

Legrandefromage
Better hope no Rozzers frequent this site in a non off duty capacity as you've just flagged up yourself as suspect numero uno complete with getaway car description for a major unsolved crime against microsoft :shock:

I wonder if the skip laws apply in the same manner up here in Scotland with our seperate legal system. If it does I can grass up my Dad next time he's being a pain in the **** !

Click to expand...

It was 1994, officer.

My house is tidy, the garage is not...