Keep Your Workboots in Your Truck

While taking the garbage out at work tonight, I notice the owner of the business next door moving a bunch of papers out to his dumpster. When I was leaving, I drove around in time to catch him in the process of throwing an exercise machine away. I stopped and told him that I could save him some effort if he wanted to put it down and let me load it in my truck. He seemed very grateful. I load up the exercise machine in the truck, and then, I go inside to talk to him. He has a few customers, so I wait. I get to talk to him, and he says that they are moving in a month. I ask what all he is throwing away. He shows me his back room, and I see a computer there. I ask him if he is throwing that away. He says that it has some company information on it. I then tell him that I will take the hard drive out for him if I can have the computer. Again, he seemed to be grateful. So, I go get a philips head screwdriver, take out the harddrive, and hand it to him. He wanted to know how to get the info off of it. I put the shunt in cable select mode, show him the IDE cable he needs to put it in another computer, and explain to him that tinkering with computers is a hobby of mine albeit an expensive one. He then tells me to come by on Monday as he has more stuff back there. I doubt he has anymore computers, but he mentioned some printers, and various other metal. It was great to be in the right place at the right time.

As it stands, I have a 50-75 lb. exercise machine and a computer as my score with the possibility for more.

So, the moral of the story is keep your workboots (read: phillips head screwdriver) in your truck, and be prepared to take out that harddrive and educate someone. The owner of that business seemed to be happy to learn how easy it was to pull a harddrive and recover the data.

Congrats; good job.

Originally Posted by auminer

Yeah, we're not talking about life-changing sums... but a couple-hundred bucks a month for so little work: yeah, I'll take that! Networking, baby!

Exactly. I made $15-20 in 20 minutes of loading, removing a harddrive, and talking. 18 minutes of that was spent talking

what kind of job this is?

yes i agree I keep a small toolbox and some work boots in my car, sometimes on my lunch hour I go scrapping. it pays to be prepared. now if i could get a longer lunch hour that would be great.

Aye, ...always handy to keep a some tools in the vehicle as well as some safety gear too, ie gloves, etc ...I have to wear safety shoes/boots for work so i'm usually wearing them most times while I'm out and about. Some yards require you to have a hard hat and safety glasses as well, so might as well have them available when needed.

I went back yesterday and talked to this guy. He said he had not done any work over the weekend on moving out. He asked what all I wanted, and I bluntly said anything metal or electronic. He said that would deffinately save him some effort. We went to his back room and he showed me some filing cabinets, metal shelving, a restaurant booth, a copy machine, and other miscelaneous items. I told him I would take it all. He agreed to put everything in the back corner to save for me. I told him that I would check in on Fridays when I get off of work to pick it up. I asked him about an old OTA antenna he had on the roof. He told me to take it, so I grabbed my ladder, hopped up there, and took down the antenna in about 10 minutes. The antenna was all aluminum, with a steel pole, and an electric motor. It was nice that I did not leave empty handed that day.

Originally Posted by eAlchemist

I went back yesterday and talked to this guy. He said he had not done any work over the weekend on moving out. He asked what all I wanted, and I bluntly said anything metal or electronic. He said that would deffinately save him some effort. We went to his back room and he showed me some filing cabinets, metal shelving, a restaurant booth, a copy machine, and other miscelaneous items. I told him I would take it all. He agreed to put everything in the back corner to save for me. I told him that I would check in on Fridays when I get off of work to pick it up. I asked him about an old OTA antenna he had on the roof. He told me to take it, so I grabbed my ladder, hopped up there, and took down the antenna in about 10 minutes. The antenna was all aluminum, with a steel pole, and an electric motor. It was nice that I did not leave empty handed that day.

If you're hauling a ladder, then yeh you should definitely have ur boots...

I regularly wear jeans n steel toes, even in the summer..just makes sense..