My friend lives on a residential, public road w/street parking that’s scarce. Residents often leave their blue & gray bins out on the road (even on non-pickup nights). This isn’t some nice, fancy, high-income, clean, or strict area by any means… very much the EXACT opposite.
I parked my Honda Fit 4 houses down from her place, right up to a bin to ensure it wasn’t too close to a driveway. I scooted the bin over <1 ft to walk through.
My partner says don’t touch other people’s trash cans or I’m gonna piss them off. Mind you, it’s 2 AM and there’s no one around. He said they could be watching from a security camera. I said that’s ridiculous. It’s a trash can on the public road. I just moved it to pass. It’s not like I’m digging in their trash, trespassing, or moving it far.
He said it’s rude that I even touched it, and he’d be mad if someone did that in front of his house. “Because it’s MY trash can. MY property. Not yours.” I pointed out it says “Property of City & County of Honolulu.” He said, “Doesn’t matter, you’re a guest here. Most people know not to do that. You have no Trash Can Respect!”
I said it’s literally trash… if they cared that much about it getting touched they’d move it to their driveway. This escalated, ruining my mood, & he ended with “You just don’t get these things but oh well, now you know”… and I said “no, I’m not going to follow that.”
Immediately after this, he puts trash in the bin in front of our friends place (a multi-unit property).
AITA here?
NTA
Once on the street, it is…trash. Tossed out. No longer a thing to be cared for.
If you put dog poop in it, possibly stinking up the can, that would be unacceptable. But…moving it a little. I don’t see the issue.
I don’t even think it’s a Hawaii thing. I lived there for 11 years and never heard of this.
They would lose their absolute shit at the 4:30 am can collector 🤣 (some guy that comes down our street for the redemption cans)
💯
I’m from Oahu, now live in Washington .
In neither place would I have had any issue moving my neighbors can or someone touching mine . (Just moving it out of the way)
Move the trash can and move on with your life.
The only time it would be crossing the line is if you went into their trash can to throw your trash away or look through their trash.
lol are you just copying curb your enthusiasm episodes
OK, not in the USA or Hawaii but I woud havthought that there is only an issue if
\- You go onto their property to move it
\- You moving it means that it won’t get picked up / emptied
\- you move it somewhere that means it is blocking someone’s driveway or access and/or it’s likely to get hit by traffic
NTA. No one cares if you move their trash bin a foot over. Well not “no one” your friend cares, let me rephrase, no reasonable person would care, but there are a lot of unreasonable people out there and there numbers seem to be growing.
Nta
YTA mildly… not necessarily for what you did, but for arguing about it.
Some cities have really rigid, weird rules and regulations about trashcan placement. Don’t touch the cans once they are out. Also, your friend probably better knows how your neighbor would react than you would, and they are the ones who live near them, not you.
All you needed to do was say, “you’re right, my bad,” then moved the trashcan back.
Neither if is live there we were visiting our friends place.
NTA. Imagine this in court:
*“Your Honor, they SCOOTED it.”*
*-“How much?”*
*”8 INCHES!!!”*
*\*gasps from the jury\**
*-“The defendant is guilty has been charged for 2 felonies and a misdemeanour due to a complaint by a protector of the (insert\_word\_of\_choice\_here) bins.”*
OP didn’t trespass. OP didn’t vandalize. OP didn’t launch the bin into the Pacific. They performed a minor urban choreography adjustment. Please start referring to it as “The Incident of the Bin” forever.
NTA. Your friend would go nuts in my home town. Twice a year they do bulk pickups where people can throw away bigger items than normally wouldn’t be able to be picked up (old furniture, mattresses, etc). Oftentimes people drive around looking through the piles people put out, mainly looking for metal. Most people don’t care, as long as the people going through the garage doesn’t throw things all over.
Is your friend hypersensitive to criticism? Because this sounds like a huge overreaction. Seriously? Does he actually believe that people are examining their security footage to see if someone moved their garbage can? Did he grow up with a parent who had OCD? Because this is not normal.