So I’m wending my way to physical therapy through the neighborhood when I stop at the stop sign at the corner of Picturesque Lane and North Feeder Street. The garage for the house at on the southeast corner of Picturesque and North Feeder flanks the living quarters, so that there’s no windows on the west side.
The homeowners leave their big plastic garbage bin and their big plastic recycling bin in the front yard on that side of the property, out of their sight and mind…but not out of anyone else’s.
A garbage scavenger — putatively — had dropped his bicycle on its side, along with the wire crate he’d fashioned into a bike “trailer” for carrying salable junk. He was going through the recycling barrel…and he wasn’t look for tin cans.
The blue barrel was chuckablock full of loose papers. As I paused at the intersection, I could see that he was leafing through pages, looking at them closely. Obviously, he was searching not for metal he could sell but for data he could sell.
F’r cryin’ out loud, folks! Don’t toss intact personal and financial papers in the trash! Grind them up! Dumpster diving is a major source of riches for identity thieves.
A shredder just isn’t that expensive. It sure costs less than an identity theft, which can haunt you for years.
Seriously? Oh dear lord, what is the world coming to?
LOL! It’s been here for awhile. Couple years ago, my neighbor Sally walked into the alley to throw out the garbage and found a guy sitting next to the dumpster going through a big wad of paper he’d pulled out of there.
Good reminder that I probably need to go through and do a shredding session. It’s been awhile and I need to go through and do it.