Giving Away Free Furnature May Get You In Trouble And Fined!
These days you can find tons of perfectly good furniture for sale dirt-cheap or free in front of the thousands of foreclosure homes during this depression that is being “fluffed-off” as a “double or triple dip recession” (depending on which cable news channel you watch). Many of us will put a perfectly good end table, recliner, etc. near the curb with a sign that says, “Free!”. What many of us call “Freecycling”, may get those of us who are just trying to help out neighbors in trouble and fined!
I can recall my apartment being furnished with free chairs, sofas, tables, microwaves, heck… almost everything but the TV was found with a free sign on it during my college years. I think the only thing that was NOT something I got either from the front yard of a home in a nice neighborhood or Goodwill was my TV and bed. That’s how many bachelors and bachelorettes furnish our first place.
Well according to a story from a friend and reconfirmed by another, I decided to talk to a 36 year old Cascade man who was trying to get rid of some of his furniture due to his bank foreclosing on his home. He was fined $100 by the garbage police for putting a nice but used dresser at the side of the road with a big sign that read “FREE” last Sunday in his upscale neighborhood because it was not a scheduled sanitation pickup day.
During a phone conversation, Chris Schultz says,
“I feel like the system of putting furniture on the street for others is a deep-rooted part of many communities,” Schultz said. “If I had a heap of smelly trash that was out there for days, I might be more sympathetic to the township. However, this is cutting into a system that recycles goods and helps those who have less.”
Schultz says he will pay the fine, but added,
“that doesn’t mean that it’s a good law or one that is truly serving the people”