The Trash Battle of 2010

For several weeks, bags of trash have mysteriously appeared by my front steps the day after trash day. I took the first few offenses with grace and lugged the offending bags through my house to the back "yard" until trash day the following week.

As the problem continued, my patience waned. I had to take action.

The note I hung on my steps was simple though I went through 42 edits until settling on this message, "To the people dumping trash here...PLEASE STOP! And try to consider how inconvenient it is for me!"

It worked...for a few days, then last week another bag appeared, defiantly leaking it's rotting insides onto my concrete front "yard".

I had had enough. Snapping rubber gloves onto my determined hands, I dug through the trash, searching for an address. But these people were good. All personal mail had been eliminated which means these people had planned ahead. They knew they were going to dump their trash by my house, so they made sure to remove all evidence...except one.

Stuck to the bottom of the slimy black bag was a post card with three names and an address. I found my evidence! It felt like forever before nightfall hit, but as soon as the sun dipped below the horizon, I threw on a black sweatshirt and slowly opened my front door.

My gaze scanned the length of the street. No people. The coast was clear. Stealthily I drug the bag to the offending home and dropped it by their steps, mirroring the exact place they had dropped it in front of mine. Victory!

Here's what I figure: If this is the offending address, they will know they've been caught and stop dumping their trash at my house. If this is not the offending address, they won't know where that trash came from and I'm in the clear.

But what if the trash doesn't belong to them and they are inconvenienced just as I had been? What if I'm just paying forward a nasty deed that seems like a little speck now, but may snowball into a city wide epidemic of trash dumping?

I guess I'll have to wait until the day after trash day to see if another bag appears at my house.