Have you ever been caught or caught someone littering?

[meaty]

Once I have been caught when I was about 9/10 I was walking with my family and I threw my empty can down a hill and my mum caught me.

 

[mmouse37]

I am amazed that I still see adults throwing trash out car windows on the highway and even local roads. It's disgusting. Drives me crazy.

MJ

 

[Hikergirl]

I am amazed that I still see adults throwing trash out car windows on the highway and even local roads. It's disgusting. Drives me crazy.

MJ

I agree, but I see more people throw their cigarettes out of the window. I guess they are just too gross and dirty to leave in your car?
People who throw things out of their car windows are scumbags.

 

[Moana of Motunui]

I thought the title was shop lifting! To both littering and shop lifting: no, I don't do either. There's plenty of people who do those things though.

And agreed with throwing stuff out the window. It's annoying and rude. Especially cigarettes. Gross things. I've seen a guy driving in front of me opening his new pack of cigarettes and threw the plastic wrapper out the window! So one person doing two things that I hate: littering and smoking. No thanks.

 

[ronandannette]

I agree, but I see more people throw their cigarettes out of the window. I guess they are just too gross and dirty to leave in your car?
People who throw things out of their car windows are scumbags.

Do you remember the days when cars actually had ashtrays in them? I do. It's been decades since they disappeared and as a smoker, I can assure you there are other devices - both makeshift and available for purchase - that handle cigarette butts adequately.

Here a tossed cigarette is also a major threat for starting a wildfire. There was a news clip the other day of a guy who saw somebody tossing a butt and at the next set of lights he hauled the guy out of his car and punched him in the face. You can be driving down the freeway here and if a butt is thrown, people who notice will honk.

And as for general garbage? What kind of pig does that? I sometimes see litter dropped within a few feet of a garbage can, presumably just because the person was too lazy to put it all the way in.

 

[Magpie]

Once when my daughter was a young teen visiting her grandmother up north, she spotted a man failing to pick up after his dog. Now, my daughter has inherited her grandmother's look of disapproval (think, Marge Simpson), and the man very quickly realized a young girl was frowning at him. He got defensive and said, "What!?"

My daughter pointed at the dog poo on the ground. "You didn't pick up after your dog!"

"I don't have to! You can't make me!"

My daughter: Glare.

He scuttled away as quickly as he could.

I think my girl will make a terrific parent some day.

 

[DopeyDame]

Just last week I was on the highway and the jerko in car in front of me threw a big Wendy's bag (at least I think that's what it was) out the window. I laid on my horn. Not that it did anything, but it made me feel better to "yell" at him.

 

[firefly_ris]

Not super recently, but I've been at stop lights where the person in front of me has opened their car door and kicks out a bunch of fast food garbage and wrappers. Shameless -- gross, rude, and didn't seem to care who saw them doing it.

 

[Hikergirl]

Not super recently, but I've been at stop lights where the person in front of me has opened their car door and kicks out a bunch of fast food garbage and wrappers. Shameless -- gross, rude, and didn't seem to care who saw them doing it.

My neighbors do this in their driveway. It sits for days before someone picks it up.
Some people are just gross pigs.

 

[firefly_ris]

Oh! You said neighbors and it jogged my memory.... our neighborhood is generally nice, but down near the end of the road there is this one house... multiple family members live there, the driveway is chockful of scrap metals that they never turn in... about 5 different vehicles, none of which have mufflers, you get the idea -- anyway, about a month ago one of their pickup trucks went hauling down the road, without their tailgate secured, and directly in front of our house, out flew a TON of gross old McDonald's garbage. They either did not notice or did not care (I'll go with the latter...). My husband and I of course picked it all up.... just totally careless. I don't get it.

 

[marcyleecorgan]

When I catch people doing it, I stop and calmly treat them like a toddler. "Do you need the trashcan? That is trash, it goes in the black can. Yep, reach out, drop it in, good job!"

They can either stand there and keep getting shamed or they will throw the trash away and move on.

People on my lawn with their dog get a shout, "Do you need a bag? Why are you standing in my yard? Are you lost or do you need me to call you some assistance? I didn't know my neighbors were paying on my mortgage so they could use my front yard too! Where do YOU live? Can I come and bring my cat litter to your yard?" Of course they are on camera as well, so if they DO walk off, or they give me significant grief, bylaw has already told me, "if you have a photo of the dog, that's good enough. We'll find 'em."

 

[Hikergirl]

I don't get it either, how can people think its ok to just throw or leave your trash out like that? Ugh its so gross.

 

[nephthys43]

i shame people. "the trashcan is over there"

 

[Pacolovestacos]

Classic!

 

[smokeyblue]

There is an episode of Madmen where Betty and Don take the family on a picnic in the park. They had like KFC or something similar. When they got up to leave Betty just shook off the picnic blanket scattering all their trash on the ground and walked away. Even though this is fictional I was appalled! Was this a normal thing in the "old days"?

 

[wowsmom]

When I catch people doing it, I stop and calmly treat them like a toddler. "Do you need the trashcan? That is trash, it goes in the black can. Yep, reach out, drop it in, good job!"

They can either stand there and keep getting shamed or they will throw the trash away and move on.

People on my lawn with their dog get a shout, "Do you need a bag? Why are you standing in my yard? Are you lost or do you need me to call you some assistance? I didn't know my neighbors were paying on my mortgage so they could use my front yard too! Where do YOU live? Can I come and bring my cat litter to your yard?" Of course they are on camera as well, so if they DO walk off, or they give me significant grief, bylaw has already told me, "if you have a photo of the dog, that's good enough. We'll find 'em."

When I was growing up, we had a neighborhood lady (lived a couple blocks away) who would walk her dog so he could go on other people's lawns. We figured out pretty quick when she was stopping at our lawn and we started keeping an eye out for her so as soon as she stopped by our lawn, we'd open the door and shout good morning, so she knew we knew she was there. She would stop trying our yard for a while, but then would come back and we'd do the same thing. People.

 

[fly girl]

Saw a young woman (early 20's) throwing trash out of her car into the open parking space next to hers at Kroger a few months back. Uhhh...NO!

I confronted her. Told her she needed to pick that up, and there were two trash cans about 10 feet away she could chose from. She stared at me. Dumbfounded. So I stared back, then pointed them out to her. Oh yeah, I got attitude (and I know she called me all sorts of names when she shut her car door) but her trash was in the can so I didn't care. Yes, I'm a ***** because I don't want to see your garbage spewed all over the parking lot.

 

[karmic]

There is just no excuse for littering- but based on how much I see a lot of people do it!

 

[Immadismom]

Many years ago, when DD was around 8 or 9, we were in a long line to travel through a Christmas light display. Suddenly a man walks up beside the drivers window & says to my husband "I think you dropped this" and hands him a piece of trash. Apparently DD had tossed it out the open window & we had no clue. We were both mortified & needless to say, none of our kids has littered since. They wouldn't risk the wrath of mom again!!!