For a job that already entails so much work, these finds must have been tough. Thanks to all the garbage collectors who shared their stories.
Reposted, with permission from Odometer.
1/19. In my 4 years in that department we had to dump fully loaded trucks on the ground 2 times and spread out the load looking for a body, found one once. I decided not to look at it, I think I made the right choice.
2/19. I was a garbage man while attending community college. I once grabbed a bag as I normally would and tossed it in the back of the truck. A few moments later I heard a soft crying that freaked me out once I realized it was coming from the truck. I ripped through a bunch of bags until I found 5 beagle puppies covered in something awful and crying. After gaining my composure I found a big plastic bowl and filled it with newspaper, put all the puppies in and called the cops. Had to provide a statement and show up to a court hearing. The guy plead guilty and paid a fine (not sure how much). He said he believed they were all still born.
3/19. I'm a former sanitation department supervisor. My guys called me frantic one day after an explosion in the hopper of the truck. Thankfully no one was injured, but I called the fire department. Turns out the Police had been watching the house we were in front of because the guy was cooking meth. He threw away some of the ingredients, and when they compacted in the truck, everything exploded. The best part was the fact that the guy sat out front watching the show in a bathrobe. He eventually got dressed and came back out. When he was arrested he had drugs in his pants. Apparently he didn't own any pants without drugs in the pockets. Source
4/19. It's surprisingly hard to dispose of prosthetic limbs. We found that out the hard way when my Dad passed and we had a leg to find a home for. The guy who made it wouldn't take it back until my mom called him basically crying saying that she couldn't find any other organization or hospital who wanted it. He took it out of pity. But, when my Mom took the sneaker off the prosthetic limb before she dropped it off she found $2000 cash! Dad always liked casual gambling. Source
5/19. One time we found a guy's ashes in one of the standard plastic tubs funeral homes give out. His information was still on the side. When management contacted the family to try and have the tub picked up, it turned out that they threw the poor dude out on purpose. Source
6/19. Thought I had a good score one day when I picked up a computer with some pretty good specs. Took it home and was having a ball investigating it...until I found some porn. Pedophile porn. I took it straight to the cops. They used the computers browser history to make more than one arrest. Source
7/19. Last week we found a garbage bag filled with rotten meat and loose needles with no caps. When this happens, we stop the conveyor and call the boss up to safely collect the hazardous material and take pictures. Based on some mail that was in the bag, management was able to find the exact place it was picked up from. I'm not sure there's much they can do about it, but it should be considered assault. Safe to say whoever put those needles in there knew damn well that another person would be handling it afterwards. Source
8/19. The amount of sketchy things thrown away is innumerable. I can't tell you how many times hospitals threw their bio waste out to save on disposal fees. It got so bad the landfill ended up reporting them. That's just the ones we saw who knows how many weren't caught. Source
Continue reading on the next page.
9/19. Two of my closest friends were roommates and just moved into a new apartment in Youngstown, OH. The first several days after moving in, they would stand outside their door, smoke cigarettes and drink beer next to their personal garbage container. Each time they would finish a beer or a cigarette, they would open the garbage container and quickly throw away their butt or can because the smell of the garbage was so awful.
One morning they awoke to the garbage man pounding on the door. When they opened the door, he asked "are you aware there is a dead lady in your garbage container?"
They had to go outside and attempt to identify her, although neither knew of the lady.
10/19. I did waste removal at a quad Plex house. We had a tenant that did not keep up with the utilities during the eviction process. They lived in this apartment for 2 months without running water. We opened the doors and inside was rows upon rows of bottles filled with p*ss and s*it. Source
11/19. The only thing I brought to the police's attention were a bunch of brass WWI and WWII grave marker medallions I found in the recycle bins. People sell them for scrap, but that usually gets local attention pretty quick, and the police will crack down, so they'll end up dumping them. Source
12/19. Me and my partner were called to a location that was far away from our regular route one day. We met our supervisor there. He points to a tree. I look up and see a huge mass hanging 20 feet off the ground. It was dark and about 3X3 feet big. The police and fire department show up and used a ladder to cut it down. When it hit the ground, the smell was so bad that us, the PD and FD all backed up very quickly. Me and my partner had the pleasure to grab this thing and toss it into the truck. There had to be between 50-75 dead rats on this thing, all tied together. We asked the police what it was all about and they said most likely a form of religious sacrifice. Source
13/19. One time the price of scrap metal skyrocketed. Had a problem with a group of retirees on lawn tractors picking pop cans out of residential bins when the price of aluminum spiked a while ago. The town had to make an ordinance because a lot of people were using lawn tractors as ways to skirt their driver's licenses being taken away for DUIs and the like. Source
14/19. One time, my partner and I saw huge amounts of blood leaking from multiple trash bags that we had just thrown into the truck. We called our supervisor and he looked at it and just said keep going. Source
15/19. I work for a junk removal company. One time, we went into this guys' house to take out some old furniture, including a large desk. We finish, drive to the transfer station, and dump our load. When the desk comes sliding out and hits the concrete, it breaks apart and lo and behold, a. 357 magnum revolver comes tumbling out. Being from Canada, this is fairly unusual and a pretty illegal way to store your restricted firearm. So I called the cops, and left it with the dump people because we had a schedule to keep. Never heard anything more about it, surprisingly. Source
16/19. Former wastewater treatment plant operator (sewage treatment) in Virginia I never called the police myself over something found in the plant but I did find some crazy things. Once I found several female student IDs from the large university in town. Emailed all of the girls, one responded and retrieved all the IDs. Not too crazy except a few years later we find out there was a serial killer/rapist/sexual violence perpetrator who preyed on 18-24 year olds in the area. I never saw any type of ID or credit cards so close together in the screenings and it always made me wonder how they got there. Source
Continue reading on the next page!
17/19. We received a call from the mayor one day that we needed to go pick up this evicted tenant's stuff from an apartment. When going to help a few guys lift the bed and couch, I noticed empty vials laying around. I told my coworkers to be cautious as I knew there was a possibility of needles being in the furniture. After taking a closer look, this guy had shoved dirty needles down in his couch and bed in hopes of someone picking it up and getting stabbed. Needless to say, I did not touch anything else on that run. Source
18/19. I was a recycling bin man in the south west of the UK. One guy would pick up peoples' bins and the other would sort through them into glass, plastic tin paper etc in the van while we were driving along. Once I found a poo wrapped in a paper towel placed on top of some neatly sorted recycling. We were all so disgusted that we drove back and emptied the whole bin on their lawn. Source
19/19. I found a box wrapped in duct tape, like the kind of thing you would do to someone as a joke for Xmas. Well, I picked it up and it weighed around 25 pounds and it was only maybe a 6x6 box. I slowly set it down and immediately called the bomb squad. They had an incident similar to this almost a week prior in the park someone was going around leaving suspicious packages around on national monuments seeing how long it took for people to find them and the police to respond The box was full of sand and rocks. It was a fake bomb. Source
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For many childhood memories are overrun by living nightmares.
Yes, children are resilient, but that doesn't mean that the things we see as babes don't follow us forever.
The horrors of the world are no stranger to the young.
Redditor -2sweetcaramel- wanted to see who was willing to share about the worst things we've seen as kids, so they asked:
"What’s the creepiest thing you saw as a kid?"
Serious Danger
"Me and my best friend would explore the drainage tunnels under the Vegas area where we grew up. These were miles long and it was always really cool down there so it was a good way to escape the heat of our scorching hot summers. We went into this one that goes under the Fiesta casino and found a camp with a bunch of homeless people."
"Mind you we are like 11 years old lol. And we just kept going like it was nothing. It wasn’t scary then but when I look back at it we could have been in some serious danger. Our parents had no idea we did this or where we were and we had no cellphones. We could have been kidnapped and never have been found."
oofboof2020
Waiting for Food
"I was at a portillos once when I was 12 and I was waiting with my little brother at a booth while my parents got our food. This guy was standing with his tray kind of watching me then after a couple of minutes he started to walk over really fast not breaking eye contact with me."
"He was 2 feet from the table and my dad came out of nowhere and scared the s**t out of him. He looked so surprised and just said he wanted to see if I’d get scared or not. He left his tray full of food near the door and left. My folks reported him but we never went to that location again since we found a better one closer to home."
nowhereboy1964
Captain Hobo to the Rescue
"When I was a pretty young teen, my friends and I were horsing around in San Francisco and started hanging out to smoke with some homeless guys. Another homeless dude came up and began aggressively trying to shake us down for anything (money, smokes, a ride, drugs- all of it) and wouldn’t take no for an answer."
"We got in over our heads and could tell this guy was now riling the other 2 guys up and they were acting like they wanted to jump us. Some grandfather-looking old homeless man appeared out of nowhere and yelled at us to get the f**k out of here- nice kids like us don’t belong down here at this hour!!"
"Captain Hobo saved our lives that night. My parents sincerely thought we were at a mall all day lol."
FartAttack911
Survival
tsunami GIF
Giphy
"I was 7 and survived the 2004 tsunami in Thailand. Witnessed the wave rise way above the already massive palm trees (approx. 40ft?) and my family and I watched/heard the wave crash into the ground from a rooftop."
faithfulpoo
These Tsunami stories are just tragic.
On the Sand
Scared The Launch GIF by CTV
Giphy
"We were a group of kids who went to swim in a local lake. And there was a dead body on the beach with their hands raised and their legs bent unnaturally that local police just took out of the same lake. I've never put my foot in these waters again."
oyloff
Be Clever
"I was walking to school and I was about 5 or 6 years old and some guy pulled up beside me in his car and asked if I would get in. He also offered me sweets to do so. I said no. The creepy bit was when he calmly said ‘clever boy’ to me, then drove off. I’ve never even told my parents or anyone else about this as it would most likely freak them out."
OstneyPiz
Bad Jokes
"Dad's side of the family pranked me by burying a fake body on our back property and had me dig it up to find valuables. Was only allowed to use a lantern for light. They stuffed old clothes with chicken bones. Sheetrock mud where the head was... Random fake jewelry as the treasures... I was like maybe 10 or 11.. I remember digging up the boot first and started gagging because it became real at that point."
Alegan239
YOU
Who Are You Reaction GIF by MOODMAN
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"Woke up to find my little brother staring at me in the dark, asking, Are you really you?"
PrettyLola2004
Siblings can really be a bunch of creepers.
No one should talk to others in the dark though.
Not all pet owners have the same relationship with their pets.
While anyone who decides to become a pet owner, or pet parent as some say, love their pets equally, some never ever let them leave their side.
Taking their pet with them to work, running errands, even on vacations.
Many pet parents even allow their pets to share their bed with them when going to sleep.
For others though, this is where a line is finally drawn.
Redditor Piggythelavasurfer was curious to hear whether pet owners allowed their pets to share their bed with them, as well as the reasons why they do/don't, leading them to ask:
"Do you let your pet sleep in your bed? Why/why not?"
The Tiny Issue Of Water...
"Absolutely not."
"I have fish."- Senior-Meal3649
Everyone Gets Lonely Eventually...
"I adopted an eleven year old cat the day before Halloween."
"She has mostly lived in my closet since I got her, and she hasn’t been too interested in coming out."
"Last night, she came out of my closet and jumped up on my bed, and crawled under my covers and curled up by my feet to sleep."
"I was so happy!"- YellowBeastJeep
The Comforting Reminder That You're Not Alone...
"I recently lost my Greyhound but I used to let him sleep on my bed with me."
"The company was nice and he was no trouble to have on my bed."- HoodedMenace3
Hungry Cookie GIF by De Graafschap Dierenartsen
Giphy
What Do You Mean Allow?
"I have no choice."
"She is a cat, cats do whatever they want."- Small_cat1412
"He lets me sleep in my bed."- Poorly-Drawn-Beagle
Wouldn't Have It Any Other Way
"I carry my old boy upstairs to bed every night."- worst_in_show
Hug GIF by The BarkPost
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Who Needs An Alarm Clock?
"I let my two cats sleep with me."
"They're so full of love and just want cuddles all the time."
"And so do I."
"We've all developed a lil routine."
"Get to bed, oldest sleeps on my feet to keep them warm, youngest lies in my arm while I lie on my side (she the little spoon), then when I snooze my alarm for work in the morning the youngest paws at my face and meeps loudly to wake me up."- GhostofaFlea_
Whose Bed Is It Anyway?
"Yes."
"They're also kind enough to let me squeeze into whatever space they've left for me."
"Although I do get a few dirty looks off them."- Therealkaylor
"I found this tiny kitten screaming her head off under a car."
"Would not come out."
"Got some food and some water in dishes."
"I stood by the tire so she couldn't see my feet."
"She got curious about the food and water and started gobbling it down."
"I thought she would bolt when I squatted down."
"She was too busy eating."
"I grabbed her by the nape of the neck and all four legs went straight out and she tried to scratch me to death."
"I got her in the door and tossed her toward the couch."
"She ricocheted off the couch as if she was a ping pong off a table and I lost sight of her."
"I put out food and water and a sandbox and did not see that kitten for three days."
"On the third day, I came home and she was on my bed pillow."
"I thought she would bolt when I came near, but she didn't."
"I wanted to sleep so I tried to scoot her little butt off my pillow."
"She would not go."
"I put my head down to sleep and that is the way it was from then on."
"She ran the roost."- Logical_Cherry_7588
sleepy kitten GIF
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Sleeping Is A Prerequisite...
"No, he's a cat and he cannot keep still during the night."
"He walks across the headboard, opens the closet doors, jumps into the windows and rustles the blinds, etc."
"If he would sleep he could stay, but alas, he's a ramblin' man."- Spong_Durnflungle
Saying No Just Isn't An Option...
"'Let'."
"Lol."
"It's a cat's world and I'm happy to be on her good side."- milaren
Felines Only!
"The cat does, the dog doesn't and the horse certainly does not either."- Xcrowzz
Angry Tom And Jerry GIF by Boomerang Official
Giphy
Is That My Hair On That Pillow?
"My dog is perfect."
"She comes up, cuddles til we start to fall asleep, then gets down to sleep on her bed so she doesn't get too hot."
"Jumps back up in the early morning for wake up cuddles."
"The hair everywhere is the only downside but she is so cozy, what can you do."- HoodieWinchester
It is easy to understand how some people are able to fall asleep more easily knowing their friend and protector is there, in bed, with them.
Though we can't blame others who don't want to run the risk of being scratched or bitten in the middle of the night either...