As the saying goes, one man's trash is another man's treasure. I am all on board for that. This move of ours has produced so much unused stuff that we donated much of it to a Veteran's organization. I would rather do that than throw it away. So you could imagine my surprise to find some recycling going on at my new residence at 1'Oclock in the morning.

So after a full day of unpacking and trying to figure out all of the various refuse rules of my new township, I decide to take out the 2nd bag of plastic bubble wrap collected from the day. Sure it was late, but I had at least 5 hours before the Sanitation workers rolled on the street.

So as I was closing up the large plastic bag full of bubble wrap, I noticed a SUV pull in front of the house and stop there. Cautiously I decided to confront them to find out what they wanted. As I emerged, the SUV pulled away slowly and parked on the opposite side of the street. That is when I saw someone going through our garbage.

Whoever it was, was focused on extracting these old curtains that were left in our new house by the former owners, through a hole in the bottom of my garbage bag! Seeing this I yelled out "Hey, you can't do that!" they kept on. Repeating myself and closer, I now could see that this individual was an old short foreign woman who obviously did not understand English and thus chose to ignore me and tend to her business.

By then a guy had gotten out of the SUV and was walking up. I was a bit nervous at this point. Now it was Mano o Mano. Within speaking distance he began apologizing to me and saying that he had told her not to rip open the garbage bags. As if this was a normal routine. He then began helping me put the ripped bag into the one I was holding. Dumbfounded by this point, I looked up only to see the old woman scurrying off to the SUV arms full of the curtains.

The guy continued to explain that he understood the problem with ripping the bags as it deposited trash around the area. With the bag re-sealed, he turned and began walking back to his SUV. Speechless at this encounter, I simply turned and walked back into the house.

I have known for a long time that people who are in the "Have" category tend to throw completely functional items away. And there are those in the "Have-Not" category who are opportunistic entrepreneurs. However, I never expected this type of freelance activity occurring at 1 AM and by a woman who was obviously in her 70's.

At first, I was inclined to report this incident to the local Township Sanitation department. I have since thought better of it. If they can find use for my disposable items and do not ruin it by trashing my garbage in the process, then more power to them. Hell if he left his number I wold call him during daylight hours to come and get stuff.