Dryer

[semperfiona]

I can't decide whether to be relieved, disgusted, angry, or all of those at once.

Remember the gas dryer that had sprung a gas leak? We replaced it with a fine old dryer acquired for $10 on Craigslist, that Chris and I installed a couple weeks ago. Then we put the bad one back in the van to be taken away somewhere. We were hoping to be able to sell it for a few bucks for scrap.

After Chris drove around all over town one day and found no one willing to buy it, he listed it yesterday on Freecycle. This morning, he took it out of the van and set it up in front of the garage. I saw it there when I left for work at 8:15ish.

At 10:00, he called to ask me whether I'd seen the dryer when I left. Sure, I said, it was right there.

"It's not there now." He'd thought maybe Tammie moved it. But no. Somewhere in that intervening hour and a half, someone stole our old dryer.

I can't help feeling like it ought to be a reportable crime. That I should call the police. But what are they going to do? "Well, what was its value?" "Nothing. It didn't work and we were giving it away."

All the thieves have really accomplished is to save us the trouble of helping some guy off Freecycle load it into his truck. And possibly, if they were to actually install it instead of (as is more likely) selling it for scrap, blowing themselves and their block to smithereens.

Still, I hate the idea that theft of possibly-valuable appliances has to be tolerated. How was anyone to know that the dryer was useless just from looking at its exterior?

Comments

Unbelievably

[ldyalia.livejournal.com]

In the City a number of people go around and collect old appliances. If they can't fix them, they sell them for the scrap. They assume that since you put it outside, you will be throwing it away since big trash day is coming up in the city.

At least that's what I was thought when I was living in the city.

Re: Unbelievably

[semperfiona]

Except that bulky trash day on my street was *last* week, and there's a definite difference between *in my driveway in front of the garage* and *by the dumpster*.

I figured that was what happened, but I still find it annoying.

[ona-tangent.livejournal.com]

It is a reportable crime. I would have reported it immediately.

[ona-tangent.livejournal.com]

I also would have driven around looking for the guy who took it, taken his picture and then raised hell with the police, the alder person and the neighborhood association. If I found him I would have demanded he unload the dryer, snapping pictures the whole time. I have no tolerance for that kind of shit.

[bbwoof.livejournal.com]

In front of the garage = Outside your fenceline ?

Thinking about where your garage is located, and its proximity to the alley, I think I could accept that this was an honest mistake on the part of some scavenger as to your intentions.

Fox and I have placed several large items in our alley, knowing full well that they would be gone in a matter of hours. Only once were we disappointed in that regard. There are many, many scavengers in this town -- enough to define as a subculture -- and they perform a useful function.

If you are still looking for an emotional reaction to this incident, might I suggest "rueful amusement"?

[ohari.livejournal.com]

In front of the garage is on the side, yes outside the fence but within the obvious limits of our property. It was also RIGHT AGAINST the garage door, not out on the verge or anything like that.

The scavengers annoy me greatly by their agressiveness. One day while mowing (our mower is plugged in electric) I got too far from the house and pulled the plug. I walked back, grabbed the plug, moved it to another outlet and then went back to mow only to find one starting to load up my fucking mower, out of my yard, out of a half-mowed strip along the side of the garage. The cord is still attached to the mower and running into the yard, the dog is going insane, and he says "well I thought it was left out as junk." (I call bullshit, the dude is just a fucking thief.) I just fuckoffed him and went back to work, but this incident really leads me to believe that Many if not Most of these "scrappers" are just thieves.

Still, I shoulda just put the dryer out in the alley weeks ago. *shrug*