Tuesday means two things; paper recycling and playgroup.
Lucky for me, Uncle Eric noticed that we'd forgotten to put ours out and of course he offered to help. Without him, we'd be able to open up a recyling plant of our own.
While rushing out the door to playgroup, I threw the camera in my purse.
First time ever.
Just in case.
I'm glad I did because I saw this at the side of the road...
If you see paper recycling on the side of the road then, you're
One of the "good guys".
If you see this, then you're
One of the "other guys".
Since I'm the one writing this post and I obviously saw the second picture in the first picture (does that make sense?) then allow me to blame it on Ed explain.
Before meeting Ed, I would have thought "oops, I forgot that today was recycling day" and proceeded on with forgetting something else. However, since meeting Ed, I've become much more aware of the optics of situations.
Opportunity. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that this home now has a brand new 47" LED Flat Screen tv. Seeing as opportunity is half the battle, the bad guys have already won. Without this knowledge, they would never have known what was inside that house.
Twice as Likely. Did you know that once you've been robbed, you have an even higher chance of getting robbed again a few months later. The bad guys are thinking that they got away with your items once so why not a second time. I mean, you're going to claim the loss with your insurance company and get an even bigger and better tv. This time, they know where everything is in your house and all the items will be new. Double Win!
Avoid. Save yourself the hassle of being robbed (twice?) by dismantling the box and ensuring that any pictures are not visible. Even better, do what you do with your credit cards and recycle the box on two separate days.
Don't mention it. While your neighbours might be honest, they might make an innocent remark in front of a questionable bystander putting your home and family at risk. Be careful who you talk to.
I'm not trying to scare you because everyone has tv's, computers and gadgets and they don't get broken into even once let alone twice. However, opportunity and a visual notification are definitely key in setting yourself up to be robbed.
Better to be Safe than Sorry.
Besos, The Zoo
Even better, get a huge mondo shredder and shred the box.
ReplyDeleteOr save the box in a storage space? Or use it as bonfire fodder.
ReplyDeleteI saw the TV rather than the good act of recycling, although not because I am a bad guy...just because I was taught that its just a BAD idea to leave boxes like that at the curb. Thanks for sharing, hopefully this will help people who just don't think like that!
ReplyDeleteI personally save all my electronic boxes for a fire. Rather not call attention to our home.
ReplyDeleteOur recycling guys wouldn't even pick that box up! It's bigger than they allow. Simply cutting that up and bundling it with the printed side hidden would keep the household safer AND ensure the box will actually get recycled. I think that so often we do these things because we're tired or in a hurry or just feeling lazy, without ever thinking of the potential consequences.
ReplyDeleteThis is so timely! Tomorrow is paper recycling at our house and we happen to be cleaning out the office. My husband made a comment tonight that hopefully nobody will case our house based on all the Nintendo, laptop and cellphone boxes that we are finally getting rid of. If any of you drive by my place and get ideas in your head, these boxes are many years old and you wouldn't want the now-defunct electronics that we have!
ReplyDeleteOr do what we do, keep the box for the kids to play with until they destroy it to the point where you can't tell what the heck came in it!
ReplyDeleteI actually just turn the box inside out to recycle it. We recently got a pressure washer and I was forewarned by my hubs that I do not need to advertise that we just got a new one. So instead of waiting a week in between pickup's I broke the box down along the seem lines and re-assembled it inside out and flattened. I then made sure it would not re-open by placing the recycle boxes on top of the flattened box. The recycle buys would still see it but it was no longer an ad for our latest purchase.
ReplyDeleteFor big boxes like this (and especialy at Christmas time)I just flatten the boxes, load them in the car and drive the 5 minutes to the closest carbboard recycling bin. Voila, done. No need to tie up the boxes together. (Our recycling trucks are rather picky about this). We live int he country and even here there are drop bins at the local gas stations etc.. And bonus, no need to store them until pick up day.
ReplyDeleteGood point that many people don't make!
ReplyDeleteawesome post - my hubby feels the same way, so he always rips up the boxes
ReplyDeleteWow, I guess I'd never thought about it that way. We live out in the country, so I never really think about what I put in the dumpster!
ReplyDelete