Curb Shopping

I am just wondering what personal guidelines everyone has when curb shopping.

Today coming back to work from lunch I saw two tvs sitting close to the curb (with nothing written on them) facing the street.

Before this I saw some sheet metal that looked worn/rusted sitting on the corner of this property near the curb with nothing around it.


The tvs were at the front of the one house, and the metal was at the back of the land for the other house in a very far corner of the property by the curb(laying completely flat).


I have looked up threads to try and figure out what is acceptable behavior when curb shopping, what the gray area is, and what the absolutely wrong is.

So far I have found that stealing is wrong (completely agree). But when is it stealing? When is it ok?


Being new it is hard to know what is acceptable, what could get you talked to, and what will land you in a bad place you do not want to be.


Quite a few of the curb shopping videos I see nobody is communicating with the owner of the house or
stuff that has been thrown away.




So to get to the point of what I am wondering:

How does everyone discern when something is, and is not ok to take.

Anything and everything else you want to add to this please do, because I want to
curb shop, but I do not want to get in trouble or hassled when doing so.

Also in addition... do these same things apply to dumpster diving and what are the
further risks to dumpster diving when compared to curb shopping.


Thanks!