Last seen on the kerb - one washing machine...

[reynardo]

We have a council clean-up happening here, which means that the council will pick up large items that you leave on the kerb. Old beds, televisions, tree stumps - they're all appearing on kerbsides around the area.
When we first moved here, I hit Freecycle to find a washing machine. The one that came up was advertised as a re-offer, meaning the previous person hadn't picked it up. It was listed as "Medium capacity Simpson top loader in working order - just needs hoses" and the owner was adamant that it must be picked up or I would get a "no show" report, something you don't want in Freecycle.

So we had the truck to move the other gear around, and headed out for the washing machine. It seemed pretty dusty, and it had apparently been sitting in a garage for ages. We loaded it onto the truck (carefully - it was quite heavy), got it back to the house, unloaded it...

... then realised that the "just needs hoses" actually meant the outlet hose was perished right the way up to the tub. The inlet hoses were cracked and dried out, and would have collapsed if one tried to attach a new hose to them. The power cord was worn through, and there was no way I was even going to try plugging it in.

So we shoved it under the house and waited until the right time... the council pickup ... this week...

Today lederhosen and I dragged and walked the wretched heavy creaking foot-shedding oil-dripping thing up our driveway, barely avoiding back strain, and needing 4 breaks along the way. That thing was HEAVY. We got it as far as the nature strip, and made sure it was out of the way of the driveway. We also called it a few names that we shouldn't really use in public.

I thought I heard a couple of slight metallic bumps this evening, but they were very quiet and muted, barely enough sound for picking up a metal plate, so I ignored them.

Half an hour ago, I went out to put the rubbish in the rubbish tin - and the washing machine had flown. Gone. Vamoosed. Not even a flattened patch to show where it was.

They must have had a truck and be cruising the area looking for goods to grab. It is actually illegal to take stuff from a kerbside pile, so no wonder they were being circumspect.

But god they were quiet.

And what the hell are they going to do with it?

Comments

[ambitious-wench.livejournal.com]

kerb? Never seen it spelled like that before. Here in Merka we spell it curb.

Live and learn, my grandmother used to say.

[loganberrybunny.livejournal.com]

It's "kerb" here in the UK as well. I've always felt that "kerb" really ought to be an American word, since it somehow "looks" more American than "curb", but no.

dict.leo.org

[feodora.livejournal.com]

Here it says that kerb is british english and curb american english

[ambitious-wench.livejournal.com]

Our beloved Reynardo grew up in the UK, if I recall--which might explain the UK spelling. Oh, Rey, dearest? Is "kerb" the usual way to spell it in magical Oz? Or did you import it from Jolly Old England?

Inquiring minds and all that, wot, wot.

[caimekazie.livejournal.com]

I've always thought of it and read it as kerb, and I'm from the magical land of Oz. But who knows, especially nowadays as our language seems to be becoming increasingly Americanised.

[ambitious-wench.livejournal.com]

Oh, how I loves me some interwebs--I learn and learn, and get to talk to folks around the world. Thanks for the verification, caimekazie!

[mr-figgy.livejournal.com]

Heh. Kerb Crawlers...

[lederhosen.livejournal.com]

Australian spelling generally follows UK (although with some wiggle room).

[reynardo.livejournal.com]

Born and bred in Aus, my dear - only 3 years in the UK (although those from ages 9 to 12, so very formative)

And yes, we use "Kerb" here, as we do tend to follow the English more.

[feodora.livejournal.com]

When we have that, what is called "Sperrmüll" -> Bulky waste polish or russian cars a comming through the streets an take whatever might be usefull. I dont know how the know when which street has "Sperrmüll".

I dont mind if someone can do any usefull with my waste. Maybe they use it vor spare parts

[bunny-hugger.livejournal.com]

Here, anything metal left out will be taken happily by people who sell it as scrap metal by the pound. The guys across the street from me are scrappers so they'll take anything I want to leave out for them.

[moxie_man]

BH beat me to it. There are folks around here that will grab just about anything with metal in it that's left out to the street to sell for scrap.

I'm surprised it's illegal to do in your area. My folks live on a busy street. Anytime they want to get rid of something, they put it out to the curb/kerb with a "FREE" sign on it. It usually doesn't last until evening before it's gone.

[lokicarbis.livejournal.com]

Performance art?

[mr-figgy.livejournal.com]

I wonder if it's equally illegal here. When assembling new shelves for the School I put the old ones curbside, some of them in terrible shape, others just needing a new coat of paint but inconvenient for cleaners who want to move them. I've actually spotted nuns taking some of the junk furniture away.

[blithespirit.livejournal.com]

How ridiculous and offensive that it's illegal to take someone's rubbish that they've left out to be disposed of.
I used to call the quick, disappearance of anything left out on the footpath "The Newtown effect" after my grimey innerwest Sydney suburb. :)

[chaos-crafter.livejournal.com]

For what it's worth, there was a reason - people were grabbing anything left for 30 seconds (such as boxes put down while people were moving house) "Oh I thought it was rubbish".
In the end they could (or didn't have the imagination to) find a solution that said you can't steal stuff from the kerb unless it's a rubbish amnesty.

[blithespirit.livejournal.com]

I can understand that problem, but it's a terrible, wasteful way to solve it, which to me indicates a real lack of care about the real problem, landfill.
We put things in landfill so carelessly.

[sootysmudge.livejournal.com]

One of the reasons it's illegal is that if the council (or their contractors) can sell anything they collect i.e. scrap metal, the cost to the council goes down (therfore cost to ratepayers goes down for the overall collection). If all they are left with is stuff that has to go to land fill, there is no offset in the cost. There's also the issue of people making a complete mess of what's on your nature strip as they rummage through it, as well as people who initially collect something, then further down the street decide they don't want it, and dump it on someone else's nature strip.

[chaos-crafter.livejournal.com]

Anything metal (and particularly anything containing copper coils) will disappear very quickly.

[wookie-cd.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it seems like there must be people who make a career of fixing up whitegoods that have been put out for hard rubbish.

Someone was outside this morning for about an hour stripping motherboards from some old PCs we put out - we smashed the HDs for information security.

The timing is an interesting coincidence - perhaps I live near you :)

[reynardo.livejournal.com]

Quite possibly! *waves from Chadstone*

[wookie-cd.livejournal.com]

indeed ^.^

[nefaria.livejournal.com]

> And what the hell are they going to do with it?

The local bunny contingent picked it up, they're going to turn it into a squirrel tumbler. You'd be surprised how easy it is to get them to talk when we set it on the Heavy Duty cycle and toss in a bunch of our lacy underthings.