A couple of my customers have said that people have been stealing copper from houses that are being flipped over in Brentwood/Baldwin/Whitehall area. Mostly houses that are not occupied, and have “for sale” signs in the front yard.
Some kids left some bikes out on the front yard on trash night. GONE.
This stuff was probably not near the trash, but once you put something out for the garbage, you relinquish all ownership, even if it is still sitting on your yard. I read about somebody that threw away an antique table of some kind. Somebody saw it and snagged it not even realizing that it was worth $470,000. When the people showed up on the news showing off their prized antique and a big check, the person that threw the table away was pissed and sued. They lost.
The best/worst one of all was somebody that lives on Mayfair over in USC got their copper gutters ripped off the house in the MIDDLE OF THE DAY, and while the people were home! A close second is the church in Homestead right across from the Verizon building on E 9th. All the copper downspouts got ripped off.
Fuckers…
I actually heard that once you put the trash out, ownership goes to the waste company. Anything taken from the garbage can result in prosecution from tose fella’s.