Who steals Wheelie Bins and Letter Boxes

[pmrid]

I'm in a rural location. My house is over 1 km back from the road frontage so I have a letterbox and I keep my council wheelie bins at the front gate. Until now that is.

In the past month, my wheelie bin has been stolen twice and last night, an attempt was made to steal it again but I had chained it to the fence post and so, I am guessing out of spite or frustration, the villain/s had tried to hacksaw through the pier of my letter box (a freestanding thing on a leg that's bolted into a concrete footing) but gave up when they hit the star picket I'd put up the centre. So instead they just wrenched the letterbox itself off its pier and took it anyway. But not content with that, took the old bar-fridge I had attached to the letterbox pier and which was my parcel box.

What the devil would someone want with these things anyway? I'm stumped.

And hence my request for suggestions for a vandal-proof and thief-proof letterbox I can build or buy. Any ideas anyone?

Peter

[rustigsmed]

repeated attempts is definitely odd especially in your location..

something big and heavy I am guessing. or perhaps if you can be bothered setting up a camera next bin night to nab the number plates...

Russ

[Exfso]

The world is full of scumbags, sounds like you have a real classic there...:screwy:

[LewisM]

Rural isolation = boredom.

Concrete letterbox and a slab of concrete poured into the wheelie bin...

[PeterM]

Possible identity theft? Camera near gate to catch culprits.
http://www.bushnell.com/all-products/trail-cameras/surveillance-cam/black-led-cordless-surveillance-camera

[Larryp]

Stealing wheelie bins is actually quite common-people use them for many different things. Cheaper to steal it than buy one from Bunnings, I guess!

[jayconnor]

Stick a little gps underneath it lol!

[ZeroID]

I think Lewis has got it - isolation and boredom.
A large piece of concrete should sort them out or maybe go without for a few months and they'll get bored and go annoy someone else. Shift it a few hundred meters back up the drive.

[RickS]

Motion activated death ray :thumbsup:

[tlgerdes]

Very politically incorrect, but......

"Where's your wheelie bin?"
"I's bin on holidays"
"But where's your wheelie bin?"
"I's bin on holidays"
"No, where your wheelie bin"
"I's wheelie bin in jail, but I tells everyone I's bin on holidays"

[pgc hunter]

One thing I can't stand is idiots stealing and/or damaging other people's property. A pathetic and low act. :mad2:

The concrete in bin idea might just work, when I used to work doing demolition, one of the worst jobs was hauling wheelie bin loads of cement, bricks and dirt upstairs and lifting it over a gap between the building and the truck. That should put any potential thief off.

[pmrid]

Now we're talkin'. I rang the council. They replace bins but don't report thefts to Police. Waste of time I guess.
Peter

[jenchris]

Spray the bin bright pink.
Padlock a bar to the handle that stinks and points in the face of anyone daft enough to try to pull it.
Wet the handle with something noxious. ..
Paint your address on it.
Oh and the first place you look for your pink bin is a new house build.
They use them for water storage.

[GrahamL]

going to work one morning i noticed the guy round the corners ute was full of letterboxes, I thought hmm,, must be letter box guy,, before he went to work he drove down the street returning all the letterboxes to the street numbers on them , mine included.

[Garbz]

Someone stole my bathtub. I wish I was joking.

Ok in all fairness we were working on renovations and removed the bathtub and it was on our front lawn (inside our property). The stupid thing is it took 4 big blokes to get this cast iron monstrosity out of the bathroom, and the same night two guys in a ute came and stole it.

I didn't actually report it out of fear that I would get the tub back. Stupid part is if they'd asked me they could have had it for free, it's next destination was the dump and they saved me the trip. :rofl:

[dannat]

people use wheelie bins for all kinds of things -ie feed bins for animals -ive seen 4wd'ers near me keep the small ones for storing stuff or as large esky's

[Baddad]

Hey Peter,:)

Put a sign up, "If U intend to steal from here. Smile for the cameras" That may do in the short term until you can get real cameras.

Stealing wheely bins I can understand but letterboxes? That is a strange one.
I am an electronics tech. Not far from you. I can help. PM me.

Cheers:)

[tlgerdes]

If you paint it pink, all the local girls might want it, and it will still get stolen.

[04Stefan07]

People that got nothing else better to do like graffiti everywhere, can't stand it. They should have their fingers chopped off!

[casstony]

Smear grease all over the lower half of the letterbox? A thief wouldn't want to grab it or put it in their car.

I like Jen's idea of spraying the bin pink.

[LewisM]

It could also be petty Fijians :) :P :) (inside humour, not a racial slur)

[Slawomir]

Stefan, you cannot do that to the modern 'artists'...can you?

As for the thieves, I think the best thing to do is to report the incidents to the police and keep bins on the property. Or perhaps you could put a snake to the bin? Or a road kill? Or both? Just kidding!

[astroboof]

We had a little more luck, ours came back empty the day after it had vanished the night before collection. Street ferals were the perps, decent mannered bogans.

Really if I were more rural, I would consider hooking up a 'livestock deterent' to the bin and/or letter box. Zap.

[GrahamL]

I once really went overboard filling our bin , full of dirt and rocks and sheepishly put it out front convinced the council truck wouldn't lift it ,
Through the night i woke up to a crashing sound down the street , I eventually saw a yoof kicking bins over as he wandered up the street then lost sight of him,,then out of the darkness he sprinted with a big flying kick to my bin ,,the sucker didn't move an inch and he fell in a crumpled heap on the road before hobbling off into the night :lol:

[Pinwheel]

We have had this too! Your bin is now in the service of a boatie. they make great outboard motor washer tubs.

[Nungers]

Bins are real handy for getting rid of just about anything, I have put in dead cats

[pmrid]

In your own bin??
Peter

[RobF]

I reckon Marty is on the right theme Peter, although Ricks solution is tempting (could be a lot of paperwork though if you disintegrate someone??).

Must confess I've often wondered if you'd had letterbox or bin problems coming through the front gate. I haven't been out there since last new moon though. Promise!
There really are some low-lifes in the world, for sure.

[Ric]

We had our bin flogged once, I found it a few days later on the local oval with stumps painted on it.

It was then I realised that it was school holidays. :doh:

[Wavytone]

Hi Peter, you need one of these. Not sure what it costs to feed, and the postie might lose a hand or two...

[LewisM]

Peter has (is?) the Yowie.

[Baddad]

I did some investigating in the local area of Peter's property. I strongly suspected from the start and now I am convinced my initial assumptions were correct.
A Yowie family has been thieving and vandalising. They are a protected species. I'll be informing Peter to build a 4 meter high wall and a brick pillar letterbox into it. A special crane to lift the bin over the wall for garbage collectors to be installed.

Attached is a photo of one of the culprits. I was lucky to capture the image as its rare for Yowies to be out during daylight. It indicates that this particular family constitutes rogue members.

Cheers:lol:

[LewisM]

Looks like Peter, just not wearing trakkie daks.

[RickS]

Only if you don't do it thoroughly ;)

You can always put them in the curry: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0n88tZQc4Q

[deanm]

Maybe we could merge concepts in this thread with those in 'The Street Light' one...?!

Boom, boom?! (Or 'phutt, phutt [airgun])?

Dean