from the PoPville archives circa 2008
“Dear PoPville,
I’m wondering if anyone else has been experiencing a recent rash of trash can thefts.
I’ve lived in the same building in Capitol Hill for the past 4+ years and never had any issues, but in less than a year we’ve now had our city trash can mysteriously disappear three times (on June 23, April 13, and May 26). The first time we assumed it was taken my accident by a neighbor, until it never turned back up. The second time was less amusing, especially since despite many calls to 311 and filing a police report at their request we still hadn’t received a replacement after months. Our small 3-unit building only has two cans total, so that meant when the second can was taken (stolen?) we didn’t have anywhere to put trash at all for a couple weeks. Finally after contacting the casework team for our councilmember we received a replacement less than a month ago… Only for it to disappear again this morning (Tuesday) by 10 a.m.
Every disappearance has occurred the morning of trash pickup, and all of our neighbor’s bins (including the ones that go out right next to ours) have still been sitting out. The bins had our building number sprayed in large font on the side. At this point we aren’t sure what else to do! And are considering putting a cheap tracker on them just to see where in the world they’re going. We’re in Capitol Hill near-ish Eastern Market, but not close to any shops and the street where our cans go is lightly trafficked. We’re wondering if anyone else is experiencing this recently, or if we’re just cursed!”