Found a whole truckload of steel in the trash yesterday

I've had cops give me a hard time. Usually after talking with them with a decent attitude they leave me be. \
My typical response is it's as legal for me as it is for you searching through a dumpster without a warrant.

Some communities do have specific ordinances about dumpster diving.

Originally Posted by Joshua

There's a building in front of where I work and some remodeling is taking place in one of the suites. A construction roll off box is in the parking lot and besides pieces of sheetrock there is a lot of scrap metal in there. My question is it illegal if I go in a grab the metal? This is in Texas.

We don't know your city or state ordinances so go ask permission just in case. That way if an officer stops to question you, you have a name to throw at him.

Be careful... the owner of the company would not be pleased to find you taking his metal from the box.... A lot of times that stuff is baked into the price we give our clients. We know we are getting scrappable material from a job and lower the price accordingly. When it is stolen... we go stake out the box to see who is coming by... You can imagine what happens next..

Just because it is in a box does not mean it is public property... We sign contracts and bid on jobs that are very competitive. When someone comes and empties the value out of a box.. that is stealing, plain and simple. I deal with it a lot in NYC with cardboard. It gets stolen every single night and I even have to pay some customers for their cardboard whether it gets stolen or not. The idea that if it is on the street it is public domain has long since passed.

(Tried to post a link here but I don't have enough posts yet)

I know all cities are different, but if you take say an A/C Unit that has been left out for the city.. they will arrest you and impound your truck and fine you $10,000.00. I know this because one day I sent one of my employees to pick up some parts and on the way he did so with my pick up truck and I had to wait almost a month to get it out of the lot while he put together the money to pay his fine. (Truck wasn't even worth 5k)

Be careful..

" When it is stolen...we go stake out the box to see who is coming by....You can imagine what happens next" No I can't, what do you do break a leg or some fingers? For someone who has been preaching about permits and laws and the like since you came on I dont find that comment funny. You seem to be for alot more regulation by the cities and govt when it come to scrappers. Just remember without us, some of the yards that peolpe here sell to dont make there quotas to the larger yards. As far as someone getting arrested, fined and truck impounded I think that is the job of the nyc sanitaion police. The nypd is not going around looking for someone removing scrap from the sidewalk(trust me I come from a family of city cops) Most likely your guy was stopped because of the fact that it was a private carting truck that removed scrap from a public sidewalk and not from one of your dumpsters.

im pretty sure hes complaining about people taking from his dumpster

cuase he's probably giving discounts (in order to make sales) to those that fill the dumpster with recycleable material... if no recycle material arrives (cuase you pick it all out at 1am) then he is losing money

Wow, interesting response from the New York guy. Having lived all over the country, I'm pretty sure your comments apply mostly to the Northeast. That's just so typical of New York it's just hard to describe. People in that region will give you a hard time just because they can. In fact, they somehow feel obligated to.

I won't even do buisness with anyone from that region anymore, it's just not worth the hassle of the "bust your chops" mentality people up there have. If you read what I wrote, you notice I said "there is an army of Mexicans that cross the border everyday to get scrap". Here in the southwest, dumpster diving is pretty much expected since there are so many people that are extremely poor. City cops (or any other cops) never mess with these people.

Bottom line is ask before you take. If you live in an area where people are nasty a**holes to each other as a normal part of life, take that into account.