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.

Similar-ish story for me today: I was actually in my work truck, heading out on my route, when I realized I'd forgotten my lunchbox. So, I hooked into an alley I never go down, though I know it comes out in a cul-de-sac that Ts into my street. Anyway, as always, my head's on a swivel looking for curbed items, when I spot 2 water heater boxes sitting by someone's garage. There's a plumber's truck parked in the driveway, and 2 guys standing out there talking. I stop & figure I'll make my pitch & get turned down. Well, it turns out they're both independent plumbers... and the 2 water heaters were supposed to get hauled off a week ago, but the guy never showed. BOTH plumbers said they REALLY NEED someone they can count on to come & haul off those worthless 150 pound hulks when they call! :))

So.... forgetting my lunch landed me 24 bucks today, and hookups with 2 local plumbers, both of which live within 100 yards of my house & both of which get 6-10 water heaters each month!!!

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!

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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!

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

this gentlemen and scrappettes is why being prepared always pays

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 have a couple of plastic Dewalt boxes that screwguns or ?? came in new, and there's room for my little electric screwdriver, pliers, wire cutters, assortment of bits, and a phillips/straight screwdriver. I can grab that in a second and throw it in whatever vehicle I'm taking. Also have one for breaking stuff down outside that way I'm not laying tools down to get rusted. I call them my breakdown boxes. Someone was throwing these boxes away at the plastic recycle bin, so I recycled them.

If you stay ready you never have to get ready.

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.

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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.

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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..

I took the ladder because I knew I was going to be asking for the antenna :) I will check in with my contact tomorrow and see how much he has gotten done.