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View Poll Results: Taking personal items off the curb from an eviction is... | |||
perfectly fine. It's on the curb! | 0 | 0% | |
a gray area, but somebody is going to do it, so it might as well be me. | 1 | 10.00% | |
a gray area, and I would steer clear of it. | 2 | 20.00% | |
always wrong, and I would never do it. | 7 | 70.00% | |
Voters: 10. You may not vote on this poll |
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04-21-2015, 01:20 PM | #1 |
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Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Arlington, VA
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Ethics of eviction personal property grab
I went for a walk today and a high end downtown apartment was clearly being cleaned out in an eviction. Lots of very nice expensive stuff was being left on the curb by low paid sweaty workers. This is during the work day, so the tenant is clearly not home to try to save the stuff.
What are the ethics of taking the stuff off the curb? Assume for the sake of argument that some of it is pretty valuable and desirable and portable. Think nice shiny clean musical instruments. I was tempted, but partly I was on auto-pilot to keep walking, and also there were people standing around watching, and then there's the idea that you are taking part in kicking someone while they are down. Can I live with myself doing that? Can I enjoy the stuff if I take it? On the other hand, when I walk by there in a couple hours after work, all the expensive stuff will clearly be gone and only the large furniture and crap will remain. If I don't take it, someone else will. |
04-21-2015, 01:27 PM | #2 |
Старый сержант
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: NC, dreaming of large Russian women.
Posts: 1,464
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You have to ask what the ethics are? Unless you mean to pick the stuff up for the guy or gal and make sure they make it back to them unharmed.
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04-21-2015, 01:40 PM | #3 |
Radical Centrist
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Cottage of Prussia
Posts: 31,423
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I believe the law says once your trash is at the curb it is fair game.
I believe the beef is between the tenant and the landlord, and the tenant can take legal action if the landlord has unfairly evicted them. (But how can the tenant prove damages if you don't take their stuff? Go git it!) |
04-21-2015, 02:35 PM | #4 |
Person who doesn't update the user title
Join Date: Jun 2010
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If it were your stuff at the curb, and someone took it ...
If you took it, and left a note where the person could get back... The choice seems pretty simple to me. |
04-21-2015, 02:54 PM | #5 |
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Location: Arlington, VA
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My own take on it is that it is both legal and ethical, but not moral.
I agree with what UT wrote. It's on the curb. It is legally trash. The tenant has a beef with the landlord, and has presumably been properly notified that they are in arrears, and that they risk eviction, and yet they did nothing to prevent this. The ethics are all clear. The rules have been followed. Everyone had their eyes open. No trickery. Everything is ethical. However, it feels wrong to me. Which is where the morals come in. But there are scenarios where it wouldn't feel wrong to me. Like if the stuff was there for a couple of days, I'd feel just fine taking it. So already, my morals only go so far. The question is, where do I draw the line for myself? It's on the curb... |
04-21-2015, 03:43 PM | #6 | |
Person who doesn't update the user title
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Quote:
"It's on the curb" - True enough For all the rest, it's an assumption. If it's a legal eviction, it would be under the direction and authority of the Sheriff, or whoever is the legal authority, to remove the contents acting under the orders of a court. Such a removal could not be declared as trash by the Sheriff. For someone to take it from the curb, just might be seen as stealing. How do we know it's not just a emotional Landlord waiting for the tenant to be at work, and hiring laborers to do his dirty work ? |
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04-21-2015, 03:10 PM | #7 |
Radical Centrist
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Cottage of Prussia
Posts: 31,423
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What's odd is that the workers aren't setting anything aside for their own selves, but maybe they have some other requirement. If I was doing a clean-out and there was something of value that I wasn't allowed to take, I'd be sure to call my friends and tell them that there is a shiny new trumpet worth $500 at the curb of 22nd and Main.
So maybe the most moral answer is to take everything possible and contact the loser and give them an opportunity to buy back their stuff from you, at a huge discount but enough for your troubles, if it has sentimental value. Otherwise, you did want to put up more eBay auctions. |
04-21-2015, 03:16 PM | #8 |
The Un-Tuckian
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: South Central...KY that is
Posts: 39,517
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The endangered Honest American, perhaps?
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04-21-2015, 03:37 PM | #9 |
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I don't think there is anything wrong with thinking about things. It's an intellectual exercise.
The more I think about it, it's the time frame that matters to me. I'm assuming the tenant doesn't know their stuff is on the curb. And that's why I think it's not moral to take it yet. But once the tenant is aware of what is going on and has had a chance to fix it, anything left over is trash at that point. But I'm convinced that it's both legal and ethical. I'm certain that the rules were followed. The labdlord opens themselves up to too much liability if they didn't follow the rules. They wouldn't do that. So I'd feel fine taking anything left tomorrow morning. But there won't be anything left then. I'm leaving now and we'll see what's left of the pile. I walked by mid-clean out, so more may have come out after I walked by. |
04-21-2015, 03:40 PM | #10 |
The Un-Tuckian
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: South Central...KY that is
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See, now, you didn't say it was a lab.
Stuff's probably contaminated.
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04-21-2015, 03:57 PM | #11 | ||
We have to go back, Kate!
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Quote:
Personally, unless the owner of the goods has voluntarily and knowingly left them for others to pick through and take - I would want no part of it. I don't care if something I wanted but could not afford sprouted magically from the pavement in front of me - if it's potentially the worldly goods of some poor bastard who is probably having the worst week of his life and desperately trying to sort out storage and board at short notice, count me out.
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04-21-2015, 05:00 PM | #12 |
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I have no way to know any of what I'm telling you. All I saw was a couple guys putting stuff on the curb, and then later a couple of other guys putting the same stuff into a truck. The rest is a narrative I created. You accept some of my narrative but not the rest. I think my entire narrative is correct, but if we want to argue facts, the facts are simple. Guys put stuff on curb. Other guys put stuff on truck. |
04-21-2015, 03:14 PM | #13 |
The Un-Tuckian
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: South Central...KY that is
Posts: 39,517
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It's stealing.
That it's Glatt, of all people, asking this question is a little disappointing. Unless the tenant's stuff was put on the curb, as trash, by the tenant, taking it would be stealing. If your kid left his bike by the curb, and it disappeared, you'd say "Someone stole my kid's bike.", and you'd be right in saying so. Eviction workers putting the tenant's stuff by the curb doesn't make it trash. It makes it some unfortunate bastard's stuff by the curb. Ain't legal. Ain't ethical. Ain't moral. Ain't cool. I wouldn't do it, and I (used to) consider my ethics to be a damn sight slacker than Glatt's. Shame on you for thinking about stealing this person's stuff.
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These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA, EPA, FBI, DEA, CDC, or FDIC. These statements are not intended to diagnose, cause, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. If you feel you have been harmed/offended by, or, disagree with any of the above statements or images, please feel free to fuck right off. |
04-21-2015, 03:15 PM | #14 |
Radical Centrist
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Cottage of Prussia
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I should add that I left a lot of stuff in my shithole rental and at some point they are going to remove it all and put it in a dumpster. Legally it's not mine anymore (and thank goodness) since I left it in someone else's house. I do not care if someone comes along and gets my old garden hose and moldy wooden wine rack. It was a great help to abandon some of that shit. They stole my money and the least I could do is leave them with chores. And if someone comes along and gets that stuff, great, it doesn't become landfill material.
Perhaps the (well-off) evicted tenant feels that way about their trumpet. It's shiny and nice, but they can't play it, so fuck it. |
04-21-2015, 03:51 PM | #15 |
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Well. There were two unhappy looking dudes loading the stuff into a rental truck. It was mostly full. They were well dressed.
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