This is an email circulating via the Boerum Hill group. We present it in its entirety:
Of late I have had a weekly visitor who is a fairly dapper Asian woman. She apparently does not speak English. She enters my yard, rifles my garbage cans and containers. Today she blithely stole a new garbage bag out of one of the cans and toddled away. When I confronted her that I had watched her steal the bag and leave with it, she said, “NO!” evidently thinking that concluded the matter as the bag was now in her possession.
As I am not one to tangle with middle aged ladies, she won this round. However, has anyone else had to deal with this person and who does one call to get her convinced that A; trespassing is not how we do things here and B; she is not entitled to simply steal whatever she finds convenient to have.
Before I get branded as heartless, I will point out that not only do I organize the returnables so that the derelicts can find them separately from my trash and that of my tenants. Furthermore I organize the bags on the sidewalk so that the sanitation workers can easily see what’s what and lift is with a minimum of difficulty.
We now return to our regular programming.
11 responses so far ↓
1 Anonymous // Apr 25, 2008 at 1:15 pm
“derilects’? give me a break.
2 Anonymous // Apr 25, 2008 at 1:44 pm
This happens everywhere, including Elmhurst, Queens where I live. I don’t like it any more than you do. It’s one thing to go through the bags when the garbage has been put out on the sidewalk, but quite another to enter your property and go through your stuff there.
Unfortunately, I don’t think there’s much anyone can do about it.
3 Anonymous // Apr 25, 2008 at 3:21 pm
Let her see you taking a picture of her. Say “Immigration” and see if she understands that one.
I’m Asian so I’m allowed to say that.
4 Anonymous // Apr 25, 2008 at 4:49 pm
“I’m asian so i’m allowed to say that” excuse me?
I can think of a whole bunch of other things that you should not say just because you are asian like G**k, N*P, C(#$k,. BTW, I’m asian.
5 Anonymous // Apr 25, 2008 at 6:11 pm
This happens all over the city. What makes you feel like your trash is any better than anyone else?
6 Anonymous // Apr 25, 2008 at 6:42 pm
What’s wrong with “derilects”, I mean other than the spelling? Maybe vagrant is better, but we can’t assume she hasn’t a job just because she is digging through a stranger’s discarded filth, can we? Every morning my neighborhood is littered with trash that had been placed properly the previous evening. There are so many desperate people in NYC, what can you do? Pick it up if it bothers you. And why do we pick on each other over tiny P.C. crap. You could be outside helping someone in need, instead of policing the innocent comments of a stranger. You’re probably vegan, too.
7 Anonymous // Apr 25, 2008 at 9:48 pm
oh please gimme a break!
and what does “blithely” mean?
8 Anonymous // Apr 26, 2008 at 3:49 am
these people are former slave labor at fast food joints, they still havent paid off the snakehead who smuggled them into the country, so they are shipped off to assigned territories to rifle through trash looking for 5cent refunds, their tortured faces have outlived their usedfulness of and their lousy lives can no longer enthusiastically say ‘yo wan eggroll with that..’ no really think about it the lady digs through trash for valuable 5 cent deposit cans, and all you can think about is your precious garbage bag, a cheap box of flimsy bags at the 99 cent store is 20 cans of her food, you are not from nyc, its obviously an organized racket, these people are abused or so downtrodden that this is their life, you think she was a daper asian woman because she what had one of those cute chinese style jackets on, she was chinese, you want to sound so PC, did you need see the pain and her sould when you looked into her eyes, she saw a brand new heavy duty costco bag that rich american purchased in bulk or maybe you snagged a box at homedepot because your a landlord and you gotta keep things cool for your tenants, well thats not how we do things here you say, god forbin she entered my precious brooklyn brownstone property and looked in my trash. your right, here we dont run to a blog and talk sbout how dapper asian women stole your god dammed garbage bag. its not like she took your precious unfinished soda out of your hand and walked away with it for the sake of 5 cents…next time you see her, offer her some tea and spare a few extra garbage bags, after all shes going about the end of her life (shes elderly admit it) picking up valuable trash, a commodity to these people who actually eek out a meager existence off your trash…oh yeah derelicts, wonder why theres derelicts, whats next someone sat on your stoop? who ya gonna call!?
9 Anonymous // Apr 26, 2008 at 6:42 am
you also sounds like a woman, or the most effeminate man who ever put words on paper, actually nobody does that anymore, your the most worthless human being who ever typed on a wireless keyboard.
what kind of weakling are you, as a retired sanitation man, let me fill you in, take all your trash put it on a couch, now sit on it, i can lift it over my head and dump you all in my bus in one shot, your paltry efforts just make it harder for me to go along my route, its actually more efficient to pick up one load than all your pretty little lightweight bags.
10 Anonymous // Apr 26, 2008 at 9:25 pm
I have seen this happen on 24th street near 3rd avenue. They were loading up a van of recyclable cans and bottles. Seemed to be quite an operation. Somebody should take down whoever is running this outfit. You can fit quite a few cans into a large van. Adds up to a lot of lost revenue for the city in total. Just one more reason my taxes are so fu**in high…
11 Jason // Apr 27, 2008 at 4:10 am
As you said that you are not heartless, there are several levels of actions you could take on.
Of the highest, you would show up at her arrival, speak to her regardless of her understanding English. Offer her what she needs next to your trash bag and basically convey in your imaginative ways to her that you want to help, but with your household, she needs not to open the trash bag.
Remember, even though her browsing is pesky and bordering unlawful, your generosity is beyond the legal or cultural realm. Put it this way, she is still a human being in desperate needs, but not a raccoon in the burb. Give her a break and continue to leave her needs next to your bag if you can’t seem to confront her with your generosity.