If was a normal Friday, the wife and I were working from home, our son had just left for work. As the quietness settled the front door burst opens and the son comes running in “Dad the wheelie bin is missing”
Fridays are our normal bin day, alternating each week between small rubbish wheelie bin and large recycling wheelie bin. This week was recycling week. The bins are put out the night before as the binmen have a habit of coming early like 6:30am some weeks. When I got up and opened the blinds the wheelie bin was still there. Now a couple of hours later the bin had been emptied and now was missing. A quick scan of the street did not reveal the bin, a later search proved negative. Having had the rubbish wheelie stolen from our garden in the past we feared the worst.
Friday afternoon call to the council to advise them of our missing bin did little to improve things. “We will ask the crew if they returned it to depot (they do if they are broken apparently), or you can buy a new one £55. No Phone call from the council on Monday. Tuesday I spotted a lone wheelie bin a few doors down, not our but the same size. Tuesday, lone wheelie still in the street. Wednesday, I finish work then check the lone wheelie bin, it still there. I go and knock on the door of the house it is out side of, House owner says it is not theirs. I leave and collect the wheelie bin as I pass it and take it home. It is newer than our (different lid styles), I now make a plan to paint our house number on each bin.
Thursday and son come home from work and asks “what with the new weekly bin on the drive”, what wheelie bin was the reply. Upon looking there was a brand new wheelie bin with a blue lid on our drive. Nobody had knocked the door, no phone call or email from the council, nothing.
If you thought that was the end…………….
On Friday we found our old wheelie, it turns out our neighbour had it. Turns out the bin we collected from the street was his bin. We have agreed to swap bins after the collection on Friday 8th. As for the new bin, we intend to keep and only use it for special occasions!!