Does this count as a score?

Utility company left about 30 ft of insulated cable on buys highway. Let it set for 4 days.
About 30 lbs of copper.
Right after that pulled into a store to get smokes.
Found a commercial grade (not in great condition) set of jumper cables the are about 20 ft long out laying next to their dumpster. Not sure how much copper yet but they are about the size of my index finger (each lead).
At work for free 3 burnt out 3/4 hp table top drill presses, 5 old vises (cast iron maybe about 100 - 150 lbs total), 2 old gear reducers, and a couple of burnt out 1hp motors (all for free).
All of this took less than 15 minutes to collect and all were free. I was driving home when I picked them up except for the stuff from work.

I know it is not the amount of stuff you guys get, but I am just learning to always look around. I think you guys know what I am trying to say.

looks like a score to me.

what was said above plus there is a difference between in the dumpster and sitting next to it, you would need the property owners permission to remove anything and get it in writing

its a score but not a legitimate one

utility company property is like railroad property

If you haven't stripped the wire yet I would think about putting it back where you got it from. I will give you the benefit of the doubt on this one since it seems like you are an honest person. If you weren't,you wouldn't have posted this on a public forum. I would call the company and see if what is left behind is fair game in the future, but I am almost willing to bet a pentium pro that the answer will be a definitive no. There was an old post a while ago about a transformer that got struck by a car and knocked off the road and was hidden by some brush. The person who found it called the utility company and asked if they could take it. I believe that they were told it was company property and is not fair game. From what i remember the company still hasn't come out to get it.

The old vises if their still usable are worth more in maybe a yard sale or consignment shop.

Thanks for all the input. The cables I am pretty sure the owner did not care. I am friends with the owner of the cigarette shop.
The cable I will put back didn't really consider it stealing. More like abandoned property.
The vises are shot. Trust me. Only good for scrap.

Originally Posted by Trot

We had to have some line work done on our road and the electric company left clippings about a footlong in the ditch and on the road. Is that stealing. Mind u this is rural America and we have to pick up dumped trash and cut up fallen trees out of those same ditches.

Hey Trot, read all the above. Stealing a penny or a crate of copper is still stealing.

I took the cable back. Now here is my question for you guys.
1 - Cable was in the street. Had been run over for 4 days. Pretty sure it was the portion that got replaced.
2 - It was city utility not phone company. Pretty sure of that.
3 - It was not in the easement.
4 - Morally and legally by putting it back I could be as guilty as they were of negligence if some one gets injured or if a vehicle gets damaged.

Morally how do you justify taking something out of a city owned garbage can placed on their easement?
I mean it is not illegal, but if I was stealing then you need to stay out of the garbage cans and out of the city owned easement.
Look at the papers you signed when you bought your house. You signed an easement. On my property it is 12 feet.
So based on what you guys are telling me....
A - Garbage can owned by city or whoever it is contracted to. Is their property.
B - That means that whatever is in it is theirs. Whatever is on the easement is theirs.

I know and you know that this is not always true it varies by locality.
So to all of you that assumed I was doing wrong. How do you justify your actions or assumptions?

It becomes real easy on this board to tell who which of us have some experience with life and which of us are still a little young.