Stealing at the Dump?

DPW lacks a cash control system at the landfill

My friend Bobby and I made a couple trips to the dump last week in a borrowed van with the last of our wreckage from the move. Left over buckets, a smashed-up garbage can, cans upon cans of old latex solidified into odd works of pastel art with kitty-litter; unusable pieces of lumber, all the unmentionables that remain behind when the tag sale is over and the FREE signs don’t generate takers. At the shack we underwent the usual inspection, the attendant peering through the windows, asking nosy questions about the contents of all our mystery bags, telling us what went where.

“Ok” the attendant said, after some thought, “Twenty-two bucks.”

The attendant pulled quite a good-sized roll. Our change was counted out, and the attendant pasted a single sticker on one of our bags. Bobby, who doesn’t miss much, raised his eyebrows. Later on, when we were throwing stuff into the green dumpster, he commented what a great job the gate keepers at the dump had.

“Big money coming through here every day,” he said. “Whewee, what was that one sticker business all about?”

“It was a two dollar sticker.” I said,

“A two dollar sticker.” he said, and laughed. “What’s the system to this, anyway? “

Later on, when we came back with a second load, and the cash went into the attendants pocket and no sticker at all was pasted on our cargo, I wondered if there was a system in operation any more. In the old days, come in with a twenty dollar load and twenty stickers were torn up or marked up with a magic marker. There always has been scuttlebutt that there is stealing at the landfill, but I don’t think anyone has ever been led off in handcutffs.

Downtown at city hall you give someone two dollars, they have to make out a receipt for it. Out at our dump, commercial carters go on the scale, get weighed, and get a receipt. I’ve always felt that there is too much discretion given to gate-keepers at the dump, too much possibility of wheeling and dealing for friends. One figure for a buddy, another for someone you couldn’t stand. I talked to Debby at the Department of Public Works, and she said that the gate keeper has these “bulky cards” in $5.00 increments and she would tear four of them up for a $20.00 bulk load. I told her I never saw the attendant tear up anything, and she said, “Well, I’m sure that they were torn up after you left.” She said when things get really busy, they have to do that tearing up business later.

As I remember, it was a quiet afternoon.

No car behind me waiting. OK, chalk this up as an oversight

on the attendant's part.

Maybe the gate keeper did go back into the shack and tear up these tickets each time, and maybe they forgot about it. I plan to file a police report over the incident. The real problem is all that cash and all this discretion. My bet is that millions in cash come in this way every year. At the very least, there ought to be a book of numbered receipts for the attendants for larger loads, and the DPW should post a big sign on the shack out there just like they have at Dunkin Donuts.

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CUSTOMERS SHOULD EXPECT TO GET EITHER A RECEIPT OR THE APPROPRIATE NUMBER OF STICKERS. IF THIS DOESN'T HAPPEN, CALL THE FOLLOWING NUMBER 555-5555

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Or, better yet, we ought to do like Amherst does, send all large loads to the scale. Amherst, by doing this, has a computerized record that can be balanced against intake receipts.