If you think it’s only your friends and family who know a lot about you, think again. There might be strangers out there who know more of your secrets than you realize, including the not-so-nice stuff. We’re talking about the guys that pay your home a visit about once a week, to collect the nasty things you no longer want in your space.
Trash collectors have been sharing some disturbing, sad and gross stories about the worst things they’ve encountered on the job. From cute abandoned puppies to live ammunition, many might have you wondering what your neighbors are up to when no-one’s looking.
Bored Panda has compiled a list of the most eye-opening answers from a series of online threads, in which netizens asked garbage collectors to spill all the stale tea. So make sure your trash bags are securely fastened, sit back, and keep scrolling. Upvote the ones you found most unexpected.
#1
My uncle was a policeman, and was flagged down by a scaffy (binman, trashman, whatever you call them) on his morning beat. The guy told him that there’s a black bag next to some commercial dumpsters, and it’s moving.
The guy was too scared to open it, so my uncle did and it turned out to be a very small, malnourished Golden Retriever puppy. He took him back to the station, and the Police advertised that he was found and asked his owner to come forward. Obviously, nobody is going to come forward after dumping the poor thing next to a dumpster to die. After the statutory period of waiting for his owner to call in, my uncle’s superior (I don’t know what rank he was at this point) told him that the pup was going to the animal shelter… unless David and his family wanted him.
So they took him home. He was an amazing dog, a real lovable goof. He lived for 13 years until he died from cancer, but in those 13 years he was so loved. Not bad for a trash dog.
Image source: anon, Boris Pavlikovsky
What would we do without trash collectors? It’s a job that many would turn their noses up at but yet if it’s left undone, our homes would be crawling with maggots, rats, rotting meat and disgusting smells.
The global population dumps around 2.12 billion tons of waste every year. To put that into perspective, if we were to pile that waste on trucks, they would go around the world 24 times each year. That’s according to environmental site, theworldcounts.com.
The site adds that it wouldn’t be this bad were we not trashing 99% of the stuff we buy within 6 months of purchase.
#2
Not a trashman but when I was younger my sister had a bettery-powered baby doll that would cry and do other stuff. We tried to give it a bath, which was a no-no for batteries, and the thing broke, so my mom threw it away. Well it started crying in the trashcan, and the thing had a very realistic cry. We had the trash guys digging through our trash to rescue the ‘baby’.
Image source: mymomsaidicould69, Polesie Toys
#3
When I lived in Houston I remember once they had a explosion inside a garbage truck and it turned out it was caused because someone had thrown away live ammunition.
The neighborhood it happened in was surrounding the university I went to and someone who I went to school with knew family friends of the older lady who had done it and thus found out more about what happened.
The old woman had found her late husband’s ammo that was green and old so she put it in the trash not knowing any better, after the explosion and assuming it was her fault, she called and confessed to the police. I don’t think anything happened to her but I don’t remember exactly.
The police department later had an article in the Chronicle and a news segment about how if you don’t want or need ammunition you have you can call the police and they’ll come pick it up no problem.
Image source: b8le, enes çimen
#4
Someone called my apartment manager on me because they had seen me disposing of needles.
They were for medication and I was putting them in the collection container where they were supposed to go.
Image source: SalemScout, Toa Heftiba
#5
My Dad worked for the DSNY for 20 years. Told me several stories of weird things he experienced and saw. The one that comes to mind is him and his partners found a human foot at some point in the mid 70’s. A large black foot. They didn’t know what to do, they put it in a bag and brought it to the closest police precinct and brought it to the desk sergeant. Desk Sgt asked what he could do for them, they pointed to the bag. He promptly looked into the bag and and closed it. Told them to just cycle it through the trash. That the person missing the foot, likely pissed off a d**g dealer and that this was a penalty/ warning. There wasn’t much they could do. Since they moved the foot from where it was found, they had messed up anything that could be done as far as a potential crime scene.
They cycled the foot.
Image source: Tsquare43, Ekaterina Belinskaya
#6
My friends brother is a trashman…..he had burns and melted skin all over his shoulders and upper back. Some a****t threw out a bottle of Hydrochloric Acid and when it was being crushed in the truck, the bottle exploded and shot acid all over him as he was walking away.
Image source: rynpaige, Ivan S
#7
Not a trashman, but I came home one time and the garbage truck was still in front of my house and there were a bunch of cops all posted around the area.
Trash guy was dumping the garbage out and found a handgun someone was trying t throw out.
Tuns out my neighbour was a d**g dealer. Explain how a university student was driving around in a nrw Lexus. Just figuted his family was rich. No idea why he was trying to throw out his handgun, I don know if the gun was ever connected with a crime.
Image source: communalcreampie, Kindel Media
#8
Not a trashman, but I told this story before. I use to work at a huge movie theatre chain back 15 years ago. we had a giant mechanical trash compactors located outside near the parking lot. Fenced and chained during the day of course. Every night, we’d take out the trash and put it in the compactor and close it shut and press the button. One night of closing, did our usual routine and I was bailing some trash and threw it all in the compactor. Closed it shut and pressed the button. Few seconds later, I hear “HEY!!!! STOP HELLLLPPPP” I stopped the compactor and opened the container. A hobo was there trying to sleep. I almost squished a hobo.
Image source: anon, MART PRODUCTION
#9
Worked at a waste water treatment facility back in my teens. I wasn’t the one who found it, but was on site for the investigation. There are these giant mechanical rakes that plunge down into the sewer lines under the plant and pick up any trash. Rags, d***s, needles, condoms, dead animals. All kinds of stuff. The d***s and money seen aren’t an issue. The baby that the rake pulled up was a concern. The cops were called and an investigation was started from there. Not sure what happened after that though. Nobody was updated once detectives left.
Image source: KnuckleChildrenSoup, Ketut Subiyanto
#10
Just a little info on the sanitation department, they used to or still are some part or civil defense, when my grandfather worked for them they had storage areas filled with click counters, used for counting dead bodies, body bags, and survival stuff like food rations and other things. The idea was that if there was an attack then they would be the ones collecting the bodies. This was in NYC.
Image source: pm-ur-perkyt**s, cottonbro studio
#11
Not a trash collector but when I was in grade 6 or 7 we lived in an apartment complex that had large bins for communal garbage. I went to throw a bag in and heard what sounded like a baby crying coming from inside. I got my mother to come out and she listened and went to get a police officer from the nearby community office.
While she went for help, I jumped into the bin and located the source of the sound. I pulled out a white plastic bag and handed it to the officer as he arrived.
The officer opened it to reveal a cloth bag damp and tied. He opened that bag and discovered a litter of puppies with, if I remember correctly, 3 of the 8 or 9 still alive.
Turns out that a guy in the neighborhood decided to k**l the puppies by trying to drown them. Thinking he did, he threw them out. His dog was taken away from him and he was banned from owning any pets for a few years.
TLDR: heard crying from a dumpster, turned out to be half drowned puppies.
Image source: detivninu, Kateryna Hliznitsova
#12
I used to work for a company that did green waste recycling. Mostly grass and other garden waste. We came across countless adult toys and an engine block once. Nothing against the law though.
Image source: anon, Eva Bronzini
#13
Trashman at grocery store. I was emptying garbage cans outside of store to take to the dumpster in the back. Found a nice looking backpack sitting on top of a half-full garbage can. It looked in good enough condition for me to use. I took it out of the garbage and found that it was actually pretty heavy. Upon opening the bag, I found hundreds of coins in foreign currency. I informed my manager of my newfound treasure.
Unfortunately for me, manager knew more than I did. Earlier in the day, a guy with a bloody hand cashed in a bunch of coins from a CoinStar in the store. Manager called in the local police. Local police said there was a home break-in and that the perp stole a bunch of coins in the process.
I was now in the possession of blood money. I had to inconspicuously get rid of it, so I handed it over to the unsuspecting investigators and filled out a police report. I got off scot-free, and was even identified as a nameless good samaritan in the local police blotter. I was mostly just happy that this time in the police blotter, I wasn’t the suspect.
Image source: DavidDuckandGoofy, Kübra Arslaner
#14
Finally one I can add a decent story too!
I worked in a recycling plant in U.K. Recycling would come in, in bags same size as trash bags. They’d get fed into a hopper and ripped open. Went through a series of conveyor belts and we hand sorted through the recycling. Found a number of things. Dirty nappies, needles, p**n mags, and regular recycling stuff.
One day we found a turtle. A real live turtle about the size of a side plate. Stopped the line to retrieve it safely, called supervisor and gave it to him. RSPCA were called and gave it to them. A couple of days later, an actress by the name of Ruth Jones (perhaps most famously started in TV show Gavin and Stacey with James Corden) came in to the plant with the turtle. It was hers that had gone missing and somehow ended up in her recycling. God knows how. Some of the other guys got pictures with her I didn’t.
Also on a different occasion s*****n shells were found about 20 of them in a bag. Whole plant shut down and evacuated. Police were called who cordoned off the whole site and Royal Navy or Royal Air Force (can’t remember which) arrived and took the bag. Took it on to the landfill site and blew it up!
Image source: CLO303, Kemal Berkay Dogan
#15
I should have called the cops but took the matter into my own hands.
A few years ago I had a dumpster outside of my business right next to a trailer park. Every month or so I would show up in the morning to an overflowing dumpster. Trash blowing around, dirty diapers and the whole deal. One morning I was in a particularly foul mood and was again greeted with another mess. I dug through the pile until I found some mail with an address, scoop shoveled the pile into the back of my one-ton dump truck and delivered it to the offending address. Backed right up on to the grassy spot in front of the place and dumped it.
Never had any more problems with an overflowing dumpster but over the next couple of months my dump truck was vandalized and broken into several times.
Image source: Conniesir, Mat
#16
I used to work in a restaurant where it was common to have homeless people digging through our dumpster after we closed at night. One day, one of my coworkers screamed! “OMG Come look at this!” when he was taking the trash out. I ran outside to see what was going on when another co-worker jumped out of the cardboard bin and scared the c**p out of me. I was honestly expecting a body, though, just not a live one.
I did call the cops when I caught a d**g a****t shooting up in our men’s room, though. He threw his used needles and d**g paraphernalia in the men’s room trash and took off running once the police showed up.
Image source: Booner999, Eugene Capon
#17
I’ve called for welfare checks on older customers that haven’t put out their trash in a few weeks. Sometimes we’re the only people that would notice a problem.
Strangest thing in the trash: Copper lol. How about nastiest: Two large cans in the middle of July full of dead geese. Not even a liner in it.
Image source: Neiliobob, Thomas Rainero
#18
Not a sanitation worker but at the time I was working at a non profit donation center. I recieved a computer that had an evidance tag on it and had to call the sheriff’s department to make sure it wasn’t an active case or anything important still on the hard drive.
Image source: anon, Nik
#19
I use to be a garbageman. One day we were working and the police pulled over two of my colleagues and their truck. Few minutes later another officer arrived and they confiscated the truck. Turns out a woman, had a baby and no longer wanted the child. Suffocated the child and threw her in the garbage.
Image source: Codyharv86, Fatih Güney
#20
My Dad’s friend was really into having exotic animals. I mean anything from baby alligators to spiders. He was also a little crazy. One day one of his larger cobras got out and wrapped itself around his showerhead. Thus the obvious solution came to mind. Take a s*****n and blow it off his showerhead and then throw the carcas right on top of the trash. Next day the trash man opened up the can to a snake staring at him. He got a heart attack and tried suing my dad’s friend. I don’t know how it was settled.
Image source: purplesounds, Nivedh P
#21
My grandmother told me a story about how her Asian neighbors got the cops called on them a bunch of times because of what was in their trash. This was way back in the day and they were basically the only Asian people in the whole neighborhood. One of the times were over ox tail bones. I guess they left some ox tail on the stove and it burned so they just threw the whole thing out. A nosy neighbor peeked inside and thought it was a human spine or something crazy like that because they had never seen ox tail before and called the cops saying they think the neighbors k****d and cooked someone. The cops took it VERY seriously when they came. Every other time it was either someone calling because they think it’s dog bones and that the Asians were stealing and eating local dogs, or d***s because of the unfamiliar smells. The owner of the house was an engineer and someone thought he was running around the streets kidnapping dogs to eat.
Image source: B0NERSTORM, Leika
#22
The way the trash men were picking through my compost bin this morning, it sure seemed like they were hunting for something. Really odd.
Enjoy the rotting figs guys.
Image source: gigastack, Danny Greenberg
#23
A co-worker of mine (we’re garbage guys) dumped a human into the garbage truck. The survived 3 packing cycles before the driver heard him knocking inside of the back of the truck. The guy had been sleeping in the front end load style dumpster.
Image source: Silverdice54, Ketut Subiyanto
#24
I worked as a janitor at an office complex for a year or two, if that counts: I found a gorgeous glass bong with an upward swirling design almost as big as my thigh thrown into storage room garbage once. No idea why they brought it THERE to throw it away, and truth be told I was very sorely tempted to keep it for myself, but it was simply too big to smuggle out so I HAD to tell my boss and HE called the cops.
Image source: Egodram, Ted Whitney
#25
Tangential story, I used to work with a guy who worked intake at a local hospital. One night they had a homeless man brought in who had climbed into a dumpster to get put of the snow. A garbage truck then dumped him in and proceeded to crush him alive. He said the man was basically split open from the pressure.
Image source: radherring, James Day
#26
When I was a trash man, I used to see a man who stood at his door at 5 am dressed in women’s clothing, waving as we passed.
Image source: anon, Nataliya Vaitkevich
#27
Not a trashdude and this technically isn’t trash related, but a few years ago a popular restaurant in my city had their usual cleaning crew come in before the place opened. When cleaning the bathroom they discovered a newborn (and I do mean NEW born) wrapped in a bag and put in the tank of the toilet. Turns out the night before, a lady was drinking at the bar, went to the bathroom, gave labor, and put the baby in the tank. All within 45 min. Her friends and family never knew she was even pregnant.
Image source: Drumdrumdrum66, cottonbro studio
#28
Not a trashman, but I did find what appeared to be someone’s vertebrae in a compost heap.
Of course I called the cops. A cop came, he examined it as best he could without disturbing any possible evidence, and called in a detective.
The detective examined it a bit more thoroughly and interviewed the farmer who owned the property on which it was found and it was determined that it was the spine of some farm animal that had died, a sheep or something.
Image source: Adddicus, MART PRODUCTION
#29
I work for a trash hauling company, not necessarily a trashman myself, but kinda am. Anyhow, the prior company I worked for, one of our drivers was instructed to dump his load in the middle of a busy city street because the police thought he may have dumped a dumpster in which they believe a m****r weapon was disposed of.
Image source: anon, Jas Min
