you just don't know what's going to amuse you. Lake Havasu City is a town built on a desert hillside by the dude who owned McCulloch Chainsaws. Because of this almost all city lots are not level with their neighbors. For years the lot below us was empty. We, as most others, have a concrete block walls retaining a level lot. All 5 adjoining lots with us range from 2'-10' in difference. Our local refuse company switched to mechanized removal versus the 2 man teams before. We keep our cans on the side of the garage, as do our lower neighbors. A couple, three nights ago a windstorm came thru the night. In the morning I go thru my regular routine of coffee, the news, and the Internet, I go out to the garage to get something. Opening the garage door to see better (I need some LED's) I notice the recycle can is blown over the wall. I hop down the 2 or 3 foot, upright the can, and roll it out the neighbors driveway, up the sidewalk, and up our driveway.
The folks that had the house built were real nice people. About 10 years older than us and this was their vacation home. We saw them about half the time. They both neared retirement and upgraded to a bigger house on the golf course. They rented for a few years to some good neighbors and some pretty bad. They finally sold it about a year ago to a young couple, no kids. Typical partying 30 somethings. They are only here a couple weekends a month. But, they rent it out when they are not here. No major problems. Just young people partying down.
Unbeknownst to me, not that it mattered, they have cameras facing out the driveway. Probably motion detected, I don't know. The garbage can retrieval happened about 9am. About 3pm my wife gets a call from her Mom across town. She says our neighbor called her thinking it was us. He said he saw me stealing (maybe he said taking, but stealing sounds better) their garbage can, and I never brought it back.
As I'm being relayed this info I'm not really following what is going on. I'm assuming the neighbor is home. I walk out to talk to him and see no one home. Then it all dawns on me what is going on. In the meantime Brenda calls the neighbor to find out what is going on. If there is one thing she is good at, it has to be talking to people. She can, and does talk to anybody and everybody. We have a kind of ying and yang thing going on there. He is reassured that I did not commit felony larceny on his property.
Yesterday, actually this morning, was garbage day. They come early, so everybody puts them out the night before. All day yesterday I kept telling Brenda I was going to grab the neighbor's cans, wave to the cameras, and roll them out to the curb for him. I thought it would be funny. She disagreed. (My sense of humor has always been superior)
Anyways, I guess the moral of the story is, you never know what you will derive pleasure from. I don't know why anyone would be concerned about neighbors thieving a company owned garbage can, but I sure find a lot of humor in it.
