Stupid mistake by the resident to leave a washer, unattended, near the junk one. And an honest mistake by a trash collection person who's just doing their job and trying to clear the street of trash. If I saw a washer on the side of the road on bulk trash collection day, i'd probably haul it away too.

@millertime1211:

I agree 100%. Who leaves a dryer outside??

@backbroken: Yup, think you live in the same city as me. Never never never complain where it can be traced back to you, amazing what can happen. Neighbor's trellis was taken out of her front walkway (guess they thought it was trash) last year. Of course the fact that my neighbor is a sincere jerk stopped me from doing anything more than smirking when it happened, (yes, i am bad person sometimes. Later I heard she complained about them being too loud when they were picking up her trash.

The article doesn't make it clear that anyone witnessed the trash crew taking the dryer, if there were no witnesses there's really no basis to claim that the trash crew took it imo. It's nice that the city is considering reimbursing them but they're in no way obligated to.

however, no one does so in the front yard. . . .

@Toffeecake: most cities/counties have a policy on where the "trash" should be. Generally it would be based on a certain distance from the curb or an exact location in relation to mailbox/driveway like you have.

I really doubt that the distance is much more than 10'

@TPK: I just inserted a slag on West Virginia upthread. There you go.

@SexCpotatoes: You mean that Charelston W.Va. isn't a ghost one horse hick town where Bob Denver lived? You mean West Virginia has cities? Whoda thunk?

@Nicole: According to the article:

'Matthew said he had just unloaded the new dryer from the truck and then went looking for someone to help him carry the machine into the basement. When he came back, both the new dryer and the old washer were nowhere to be found.

"I had just unloaded it. I can't believe they took it," he said.'

So how do they know for sure the city garbage service took the dryer? It appears no one saw the garbage men take it.

@absentmindedjwc: Where does a garbage collector store a dryer he wants to keep on a garbage truck? I doubt there's room in the cab, and the "storage" area of the truck tends to turn them into tuna cans.

@lordargent: That's a good point. While the trash people might have not have taken it, someone else could have.

Might be good to get a police report then, I guess. Its really up to the police to determine whether they want to persue it further.

In my neighborhood we have "salvagers" who drive around the neighborhood and pick trash. Which wouldn't be so bad except they are known to employ a somewhat loose construction of what must be trash (i.e. they will steal something from your yard and if they get busted they say "oh sorry, we thought that was on the trash" as if something on the side of your house 40 ft from the curb could possibly be mistaken as being curbside).

If this happened in my neighborhood, I'd have to wonder if it was really the garbage men...

Contrary to popular belief West Virginia does have cities, so it could have been on a sidewalk extension thing. Mistakes happen, but you can definitely tell the difference between a brand new dryer and a used one, unless maybe it's scratch and dent.

Did it piss us off? YES. But what are we going to do? Call and complain? Then the next time they come they "won't be able to take our trash because there was a car parked in the way." Or "we came to get your trash but an animal had already strewn it about your yard. Honest."

of course, that begs the question, how quickly did they feed these things into the crusher that it couldn't be recovered?

Earlier in the article, it says the just brought it home minutes before. Conflicting info!

After reading the article, then the comments...

Does ANYONE ACTUALLY read the FULL LINKED article anymore??

The sanitation service is not your personal liquidation service.

"Oh, they're throwing away their old washer. Must have gotten a new one. Wait, there's a dryer over there. I bet they bought a whole new set! Guess they couldn't get it all the way to the curb."

It's understandable, but a costly mistake. The city needs to reimburse them for the cost of the dryer.

During yard waste pickup season one year we left two large bags of leaves in our yard where they were visible from the alley. We did NOT leave them in the trash pickup spot because we were intending to use the leaves as mulch. The garbage guys walked through our yard to grab the bags and hauled them off. That was a trivial annoyance and their intentions were good, but you can see why I can imagine them collecting a brand new appliance along with the broken one...

Didn't the article say the new dryer was on a concrete pad 70 feet away from the washer to be picked up?

In the linked article, it sounds like it was the owner that took the new dryer off the truck, not s shipper.

Matthew said he had just unloaded the new dryer from the truck and then went looking for someone to help him carry the machine into the basement. When he came back, both the new dryer and the old washer were nowhere to be found.

Also, I think Toffeecake meant that someone else could have stolen it. Since the article doesn't say that the guy actually saw the trash guys haul the new dryer away. He just unloaded the new dryer, left it there, then came back and found it gone, then assumed that the trash guys had gone out of their way to take it as well.

/the trash guys won't even haul appliances away here. You have to take it to a dump yourself or get someone to haul it away. Personally, I always just have the company haul away the old one for $30-$50 when they deliver the new one. (But that was a big heavy $1300 fridge, not a $400 dryer).

Just so all you folks that live in areas where getting your trash disposed of is a big deal and suggest things like a fancy"appliance garbage sticker" understand, this IS West Virginia.
Actually I live in South Charleston, for $6.25 every 3 months/quarter, the city haulks everything an antything away at least 3 times a week and will even get the can from behind the house. They pick up regular trash Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday, as well as recycling on Monday and god-awful big shit on Wednesday. I literally bought the house next door and tore it down years ago over a couple weeks and the city picked it all up with me just dumping it at the street (they sent up a front-end loader & open trucks). Here in WV I think they know that you just about have to bribe people to throw shit out: years ago the state gave people $200.00 for each clunker they let the sate haul off their property to pretty things up a bit!

The dryer, not so much (hence going for help)

"Interesting story, I wonder why this doesn't work for the cars on blocks in the front yard?"

There, I feel better now... And half my ancestors are from WV, so before you complain... :-)

The garbage men disconnected the unit?

" The new washing machine had been delivered and installed several days prior, Donyell said "

The garbage men disconnected the unit?

Yea, right. BS.

I never said it was theft, just that it should be a no-brainer that the city should replace it since it was obviously not with the rest of the trash. The OP says it was sitting 70 feet away from the trash put out to be picked up. It sounds to me like the trash was at the end of the driveway and this new dryer was right up by the house waiting to be installed.

Seems like an honest mistake on the part of the trash guys, rather than theft. Since when is it their job to decide if someone was making a good decision when chucking something?

The best approach to this would be to get the city to correct its mistake (or company, if it was a private entity), and communicate with the shippers of the NEXT dryer/appliance/item that wherever they left it last time was not a good place to leave it.

I was confused on that to till I read the article.

They had a washing machine installed a few days earlier.

Matthew said he had just unloaded the new dryer from the truck and then went looking for someone to help him carry the machine into the basement. When he came back, both the new dryer and the old washer were nowhere to be found.

I live in West Virginia, and as it happens our washer and dryer are on concrete pads - raises them about 1 foot, keep mild flood/storm drain backup out of them.

BUT

They are NOT outside where the garbage men can take them! Who installs a dryer outside?

And if I need something non-hazardous but large picked up, just put it out with usual things. No special tag required.

Hazardous they set up collection point every few years.

Here in Madison, WI, we need to purchase and attach a pick-up sticker for selected appliances in order for them to be scrapped. I couldn't easily find any requirements similar to that online for Charleston, WV, but I'm thinking that if there were this requirement, then not having the sticker would be pretty telling that it shouldn't be hauled away.

Pay up, Charleston, WV.