Theft versus appropriation
Hello all ,
A gentleman down under wound up in some trouble after removing a vacuum cleaner from a council pick up pile...here's what happened.....Thanks to ABC news for the story.
"Updated March 23, 2011 07:11:00
Police say the idea that items abandoned on nature strips are council property is an urban myth. (Byron Shire Council)
The arrest of a Melbourne man, who says he took a vacuum cleaner from a hard rubbish collection, has raised questions about the legality of scavenging abandoned goods.
Police questioned the man after the vacuum cleaner was taken from outside a house in Kimberley Drive, at Chirnside Park in Melbourne's east, about 12:15am.
Earlier today police were reported as saying that stealing from a nature strip was considered theft of council property.
But Victorian Police Superintendent Jeff Forti says the 58-year-old man from Lilydale has not been charged, and was released after speaking to police.
"He claimed that he'd collected [the vacuum cleaner] from hard rubbish collection, and inquiries need to be made to see if that's true," he said.
"If the property had in fact been abandoned by the owner, then there would be no theft and there would be no further police action.
"If the property came from elsewhere or hadn't been abandoned by an owner, then we would proceed with the charge of theft."
Superintendent Forti says the idea that items abandoned on nature strips are council property is an urban myth.
"If the property has been abandoned, it doesn't have an owner any more. Anybody can come and take it and it's not theft," he said.
Len Cox, the deputy mayor of Yarra Ranges Council, where the man was arrested, says the council does not know what prompted police to get involved.
But he also rejected suggestions that hard rubbish belonged to council once placed on a nature strip.
"Council does not have a local law to prohibit people taking items put out for hard waste collection," he said in a statement.
"Any items placed out for hard waste collection remain the property of the resident until collected by the contractor."
Controversial practice
Monash University's Ruth Lane has interviewed Melbourne residents about their attitudes towards hard rubbish collection.
She told ABC News Online that many residents are happy for their neighbours to go through their rubbish once it is out on a nature strip.
But some people do not like people scavenging through items left outside their homes.
"It leaves a bit of a mess in the streets," she said.
"Some people feel that's it's associated with a few unsavoury characters coming into the neighbourhood. It makes people feel a bit anxious."
She says contractors first send out trucks to get scrap metal - the most valuable part of hard rubbish - and the rest is usually taken to landfill.
Dr Lane says in some council areas it is quite legal to scavenge. Other councils have by-laws that assign the right to collect to contractors alone.
Municipal Association of Victoria president Bill McArthur says people who take valuable goods reduce the chance councils will offer collection services.
Mr McArthur says scavenging makes the service less viable, and makes contractors less interested in taking on the job.
"For the contractor there is the chance to actually make money out of the recycled materials: the scrap metal and other salvagables," he said.
"Anything that makes the service less attractive to contractors and less viable, it lessens the chance of the community being able to utilise a service such as this."
Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-03-2...enging/2647688
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