Article posted Thursday, July 16, 2009 4:15pm

Dear Mary Pat,

I am totally fed up with people using my dumpster! My business has a large dumpster behind my building and people are always putting their trash in my dumpster. Not only is it the rudest thing ever, but then there isn’t always enough room for my garbage at the end of the week. Why should I have to then haul my garbage elsewhere and pay extra since I can’t fit it in my own dumpster?

Holding the Trash Bag

Sturgeon Bay, WI

Dear Holding the Trash Bag,

I am all too familiar with this situation. In fact, I recently caught someone red handed throwing one of her trash bags into the dumpster at my workplace. I confronted the loser and said, “Excuse me, that’s private property, and we can’t allow you to put your trash in there.” She flung the bag in anyway and said that she was sorry, she never usually does that, it is just this one time, my dog ate my homework, blah, blah, blah. I should have flipped her into the dumpster to fish her trash out, but I didn’t really think I could lift her. She was particularly large and my muscles were not up to the challenge.

I would just like to point out that using someone else’s dumpster is not only tacky – actually really tacky – but it is also illegal. I’m sure the police have better things to do than investigate infractions of this sort, so you may have to be left to your own devices. I know a bar owner who repeatedly had other people’s garbage in his dumpster. He would remove their bags, gingerly go through their trash (gag, I know) and inevitably find a piece of mail or paper with the offender’s name on it. He would then drive to their house and leave the trash on their front door. Not a bad solution if you’ve got the stomach for it.

Good luck,

Mary Pat