News stories are always best delivered warm. This one happens to be red hot.
Residents of the downtown have always had to deal with “Dumpster Diving”. Where you put an old fan, computer or desk out to the trash and it miraculously disappears BEFORE the garbage man arrives. Being a resident of the Downtown for 5 years now I can attest to seeing the beat up pickup trucks driving slowly down the alley, full of trash from dozens of people’s homes. As a free economist, I can appreciate the power of the secondary markets and understand that others may place a higher (scrap) value on my goods than I do. When I dispose of a fan, someone comes along to either fix it or scrap it out for a few bucks. No harm no foul.
However, with the downturn in the economy and the heightened worth of some metals, Dumpster or Trash Diving has taken on a whole new meaning.
This afternoon my wife Virginia went to step out to the backyard and saw a strange woman approaching our fenced in yard. My wife asked if she could help the woman. The stranger responded, “I thought I saw some metal” and then proceeded to walk away from our fence and back to the alley. The only “metal” this woman could have seen would be that of our small fire-pit that is placed just INSIDE our fenced in yard. In order to get to it the woman traversed 20 feet onto our property down the driveway pad, no where near the alleyway, or where we customarily put out the trash. Virginia told the woman to not come onto our property again, and then dialed the non-emergency line to the Tipp City Police to report the incident.
This all occurred in broad daylight and at high noon today!
It is unfortunate that some of the Dumpster Divers who were formerly trusted with their keep by local residents have now crossed the lines to petty theft in broad daylight. Residents of Tipp City, please keep an eye out, as this condition may only become more prevalent.
