A woman has shared her frustration with her neighbour who she believes is deliberately stealing her wheelie bin from outside her house. She said she felt ‘like a kid in school being bullied’ by the repeated thefts.
The woman said she had clearly marked her bin with her house number, and even painted it bigger when the thefts started. But that did not stop her neighbour from taking it every time she put it out for collection.
She said it felt ‘personal’ as only her bin was targeted, but she did not know how to deal with the situation.
She posted on Reddit to vent about her problem, saying: ‘This has been going on for months.
‘A neighbour has been stealing my wheelie bin – despite it having my number clearly on it, in fact when this first started I stole it back and painted even bigger numbers. It made no difference because next time I put it out for collection they stole it again.
‘It’s only my bin they take. It feels personal to me.’
She added that she was not sure which neighbour was responsible, but she had a ‘photo of him’ from a distance. She said he was not on her street so she did not know his address.
She continued: ‘It looks like he stole mine as an extra bin for their house, which makes it worse that I’m left without a bin. He takes it back in long before I get up too.
‘I’m disabled so can’t afford to get it replaced, even if I could they’d possibly steal that one too – currently using a broken bin that was abandoned.
‘It’s also the principle of it, the thought of letting them get away with stealing my bin so blatantly just really upsets me. It feels like being a kid in school being bullied. It’s a stupid little thing but it’s genuinely really upsetting me. Is there anything I can do?’
Many people responded to her post with some helpful advice and suggestions.
One person said: ‘Have you asked the council for assistance with your bins as you’re disabled?
‘In my council, you apply and they give you an orange sticker to put on your bins which tells the collectors you’re disabled and they will put your bin back in its place for you.’
Another person commented: ‘As someone disabled myself, I wasn’t aware of this. I don’t happen to need it but I imagine there are thousands who do.’
A third person wrote: ‘Please contact your borough council to get assisted bin collection – you’ll get a big disabled sticker you apply to bin that states assisted collection and bin men will put it back in your garden where they collected it from Ie. Leave it nearer your window/house with the sticker side facing outwards
‘Also if it continues, talk to the council that someone keeps stealing your bin and they use it instead and don’t return it. The bin men will know who is taking it as it’ll have a big disabled sticker on it as well as your house number.’
