Construction Debris Scavengers

I have forgotten about construction debris scavengers, CDS, until I saw one memorable one out of my daughter's window tonight.  She was out for her usual evening walk and I saw her eyeing some of my yard--knowing her style I watched her closely but she continued on her way.

A CDS trolls home renovation/construction sites looking for good scraps to take to their own home.  We had an arrangement with Bob where he would leave us the good scraps of wood and other materials and the rest went into the trash.  The construction trash needs to be kept separate from our regular household trash.  (Trust me, I got a nice letter reminding me about of it from my town throughout the construction)

So at all times of day and night, you'll see people walk over or drive over with their trucks looking through the gold mine.  When you're putting up a house, there's a lot of wood that is considered scrap but is perfectly great for other projects you have around the house.  For example, I can't WAIT to see what Dave builds with the 20 foot long 2x10 pieces of lumber.

Anyway, one day I said to Dave, "that woman is taking our wood.."  He went to the window and said as politely as possible, "Ma'am, that's not trash. We're keeping that."  She said, "Well the guys working here told me I could take it."  Dave laughed and said, "Well, they were wrong.  It's mine."  (Personally, I know she was lying.) She then said, "Do you want all of this?  How about I just take these pieces?"

I'm not really sure why she figured we needed to negotiate on what things of OURS we wanted to keep.  In the end, each day Dave would run to the scrap pile and pull out all the materials he wanted to keep and get it under lock and key.  Because, apparently, even if it's in your fenced-in yard, it's fair game for the CDS.

 

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