adrenaline

recycle day is every other wednesday in my neighborhood. today happens to be recycle day. i was good this week, i put my bins out last night. i thought it would be helpful, as far as time goes. pre-rocker there were 2 liter bottles in my bin. now, it is filled with cans.

six weeks ago, i came out of the house to find this man digging through my bin, fishing out the cans. i told him ‘NO’, and he rode his bike away. four weeks ago, he didn’t visit my house, but i saw him riding around. two weeks ago, i catch this guy raiding the bins on the next street over. he was so brazen that he even did it infront of three different people. i yelled at him, the next time i catch you, i’m calling the cops.

this morning, i went downstairs to iron my jeans (don’t ask, it’s not worth it). i’m 1/2 dressed, and i hear this clanking. i really didn’t think anything of it until, i looked out the front door to see this man rummaging through my can AGAIN. at this point i try to open my locked door (my pants were on but not even zipped) to chase after him. i got the door unlocked and started yelling at him that i was going to call the cops if i ever saw him in the neighborhood again.

i went back inside, composed my pants, put on my shoes and put daisy’s leach on. then i thought, i bet this guy is going to go to the next block and get more cans. so i grabbed my cell phone.

low and behold, there was the guy, re-arranging the cans he had just taken out of my bin. i said “why don’t i just call the cops right now”. i gave the police a full description, and decided that i was going to keep this guy busy until they showed up. the dispatcher was very clear on this. “don’t follow this man anymore, you need to make sure you are safe.” so i stopped following him, and finished daisy’s walk.

by this time i was bouncing off the walls with my new found strength and ability to stand up for myself. i haven’t felt that empowered in a long time.

after i got to campus, i got a call from mtn. view pd. they had found the man, explained the law to him, and let him know that if it happened again, there would be repercussions. i was told to make sure and call again if there was any more incidents.

yes, i know it isn’t nice to get some poor person in trouble for collecting cans. HOWEVER, i asked him repeatedly not to do that on my block. he kept coming back for more. consider this a warning… DONT PULL CANS OUT OF MY BIN. you’ve been warned. GRR.