I don’t remember anymore what the legal ruling is but I suspect @Renegade is correct. My own feeling is that if it is dumped it is fair game as long as you don’t trespass. I know people are not allowed to go through your trash container as long as it is on your property. Before everyone got into recycling as a virtue signal, I knew a guy that got fired because he was taking pop cans out of the trash and collecting money for it. I think he got somewhere around $20-30,000 before they made an example out of him not to embarrass the people you work for. I have no problem with Snap On dumping the stuff in good faith so that returned items were disposed of-you gotta do something with it. It’s a complicated deal though and a guy that looks like me used to like to rummage around in the dump looking for good stuff.
If the tools had already been replaced, then this would be double dipping. Conceptually, I don’t like the idea, but how would @Honda_Blackbird’s evil twin know that?
The thing that bothers me most is that I didn’t find them.
I see what you mean. I was just referring to the dumpster diving, not what happened afterwards.
Inspired some thoughts I see? Let me see if I can respond to the questions or comments mentioned.
@MikeInNH, @texases, @TwinTurbo, @Renegade, @jtsanders, @bing… I know I could have just hit reply…but isn’t it fun to see your name mentioned? To date this is the largest string of names I’ve ever dropped in one session on this forum, just for fun… Yay…
In the year it occurred scrap was actually hot as hell… whole vehicles were going at near $15/100lbs if I recall?
Scrap those tools? Sure I guess, but over my dead body…or rather, I mean the body of that doppelganger of mine of course…of course, silly me…or him… or whatever.
Twin Turbo does indeed have an excellent memory (I was going to state I was retelling a tale) I didn’t think anyone paid attention to what I say anyway so I just posted and waited to hear. Good one TT. Yes, I have definitely mentioned this story once before, but only once and THIS time, I wrote it with more mystery and flair dont you agree?
I have heard that many of that guys friends were elated at the time and are still very happy with their impromptu, tool related gifts…and I hear all of them are still in regular use today. Afterall they even came with a great story attached to them, to boot. I’ve been present at times when I’ve heard strangers actually reference the event… “Hey is this one of those that came from the…” Lots of laughter and head shaking follows and a few “Boy Howdy’s” as well when they ponder the details of said tool… All good vibes, always.
Dumpsters are fair game? Usually, maybe, but not in the particular Philly suburb where this occurred as the dumpster was within the locked gates of the storage unit… and there was mention to those dumpster divers to get out of said dumpster or …something something I heard the guys simply waved back at the “Storage unit Dumpster Guard” and wasted not a single moment in time before donning their Deep Dumpster Dive Gear…so i hear. (the "guard"was just the attendant of the facility near the entry area)
Renegade speaks the truth again…discussing who owns the dumpster contents and I do believe he is spot on with that info and it seemed that must have been the state of affairs at this Storage Unit facility. They owned the contents of the Dumpster whilst it was still within their locked gates. I believe that the guard was actually told to watch the dumpster by the tool truck driver…but I cannot confirm this, as that info was second hand…but it was something like that…the guard had his eye on the trash receptacle that day. Little good it was going to do regardless.
JT brought up a thought that I’m told actually did run through the brains of those Dumpster Divers in the afterglow of the day and in the safety of some garage… I hear that it was discussed…that those damaged tools were most likely warranty exchanges… so if one of the Deep Sea Dumpster Divers worked at the shop where that truck frequented…then conceivably there could have been some sort of double dipping… sure. Absolutely valid and astute observation JT… However this incident was completely at random and was an example of opportunity knocking. I hear told that it only had to knock once and very briefly. There was one man who happened to be onsite and who knew what he was witnessing and whom to contact to properly execute such a dangerous recovery mission. I hear it went without a hitch other than a few verbal warnings from the site watchman…tho no one can retell what exactly he was saying over the clanging and banging produced by the Deep Dumpster Mission.
It all went without a hitch. If anyone wants an inline 3/8ths air ratchet (inline handle type not guns, various brands were present also) just say the word… There are many still unused and stacked in a pile in a basement somewhere. I’d be happy to ask if they could possibly have a few sent out in the spirit of Good Will and sharing !.. No BS. I am told that the long handle inline 3/8th’s tool doesn’t get used very often due to its size and it not fitting into work spaces very well. But… if anyone wants one… I will go ask the wife of a baker, who knows a guy, who is friends with the GF of one of the divers and maybe she can go check on just how many of those items are left sitting in that undisclosed basement, still there, unmoved, since that very day. I hear tale that the original number of those items was in the double digits… as NOTHING tool related was left behind that day…down to the last scrap.
Something similar happened at the dealership I worked for
The scrap metal dumpster and anything you threw in belonged to a certain company
The company’s employees would . . . rightfully, in my opinion . . . complain when dealership guys took stuff out of there. They depended on that scrap metal to eke out a living
But there’s a few other reasons
some customers saw dealership employees taking parts out of the metal container and went to the service manager. They were rightfully concerned that maybe their vehicle didn’t need those new brake rotors or control arms after all, for example.
And the service manager agreed it didn’t look good . . . at all . . . and reamed the guys that were seen dumpster diving in front of the customers. He repeated that not only were we not supposed go go dumpster diving in front of the customer, we were not supposed to do it at all
another incident . . .
one of the porters was literally in one of the dumpsters. I mean all the way in, so that you couldn’t see any part of him, not even his legs
His phone rang as a customer walked by. He was loudly heard saying “Yes sir, I’ll get that car from the back and bring it up to the service drive.”
The customer saw and heard everything
he heard the phone ring, even though he couldn’t see it
he heard the porter answer the phone
he saw the porter crawl out of the dumpster, head straight to the back parking lot, get in a car and bring it up to the service drive
he went straight to the service manager and perfectly described what he saw and heard . . .
The service manager was NOT amused . . .
When I was a city pickup driver for a trucking company, one of the places I picked up at was J H Williams. When the shipping clerk went home for the day, he closed and locked the building but left the door to the separate enclosed dock open with the shipments on carts with the bill of ladings on top of them. In exchange for loading your own freight he put what were either seconds or returns in a bin for the drivers to take. I still have them all today, good tools even if blemished but I would not feel right about returning them.
Yeah @db4690… I too have heard this type of thing surrounding trash or scrap removal surrounding car dealerships. Usually they came from mechanical type guys I knew in the real world and “out on the streets” as they say. I also know for certain that those tales were not just urban myth, by any means.
The fellows in your example were definitely a few sandwiches short of a picnic and or missing the “I” in “IQ”. Some people can really give other honest hard working folk, in a shared profession a really bad image, one that is hard to shake. I really hate that, I really do.
All this talk of Dumpsters has got me thinking about the interesting lives they’ve lived. The Dumpsters I mean…lol. The strange and interesting things they’ve seen…the trouble…the stink, the struggles of daily life, etc… Perhaps I need to present a new idea for a TV series to the Discovery channel ! We will call it “The Dumpster Diaries” and its sister show will be called “The Dumpster Divers”… the movie “Dumpsters of Death” will come out a few years later ! Each and all of us will be “creative consultants” as I know every one of you has some tale to tell on the topic, you just never really thought about it. We will be RICH I tell ya…RICH ! I’m obviously joking, but there is no denying that if Dumpsters could talk… the story topics would run the full range of every genre, maybe even a love story too…lol. It could be near endless, but only one story per week guys, we gotta milk this for all its worth.
You laugh, as I am joking after all, but honestly, I’ve had much sillier ideas that have turned into reality… The latest to do so is the Electric Flea comb that electrocuted the buggers as soon as they hit the electrified metal teeth of the comb (a device I very seriously pondered in my early teens, true story) preventing their escape into the home and the rug of the home. I knew it was a valid idea and the trick was to be able to generate enough voltage to kill those tough creatures without frying Fido in the process. Well it is yet another avenue to fortune I saw and did nothing about…It took a few decades but its on the market and on tv right now.
I had that idea a long long time ago and at my young age, I couldn’t think of how to not electrocute the pet in the process. All they did was coat every other metal tooth with plastic just a few mm high, starting at the tip of the tooth, where they touch the animals skin and Voila… electrified and dead fleas. I really hate fleas…they are truly the stuff of nightmares
I’m such an idiot, I really am.
My son, who’s 32 years old, likes to tease jokingly by asking a particular question and then he immediately supplies the answer. It goes like this… “Do you suffer from short term memory loss?”
" I don’t know. I can’t remember!" 
I haven’t seen my main tool set for half the year. I don’t really remember all the tools I do have. This repeats each year and now it’s a bit like digging through a strange tool box when I go north. I do have lots of nice tools that took a lifetime to accumulate. It just gets increasingly more difficult to remember which ones and where to quickly put my hands on them. 
It is kind of fun sometimes discovering some cool forgotten tools, though. One tool I do recall owning, I’ve had since I was a teenager, and it was about mandatory for working on 60s and 70s motorcycles, is a hand impact driver. The Hondas and other motorcycles had screws that would corrode a bit on the threads and without an impact driver and a hammer, the heads would just strip off of them. Once out, the “hot set up” was to replace them with a set of Allen socket head screws. Then you’d be fart’n through silk! 
CSA
Why not? I work in heating and air conditioning, and we service the Nissan dealer here, and I see quite a few of their mechanics using U.S. General toolboxes from Harbor Freight. Why pay thousands more for the same thing, just because it has a Snap-On logo on it instead? Of course, it is highly probable that the tools inside are professional brands, and not from Harbor Freight, but who knows? The quality of Harbor Freight’s offerings have really improved in recent years.
because I’ve been doing this for over 25 years, and I’ve seen very few mechanics with cheapo tool boxes over that time frame
Mechanics generally take pride in showing what they’ve got
I’ve seen many of those cheapo tool boxes up close
And I’ve also seen a lot of those cheapo tools up close . . . including harbor fake
It’s not “the same thing”
But I will concede that the appearance of some of those harbor fake tools has improved over the years
I’ve already got my tool box, side cabinet and roll cart
The most I’ll add is a top box and maybe another side cabinet
But if I were a young guy getting started here, in this country, I’d buy a used mac, matco, cornwell or snap on box off craigslist, offer up, or what have you, before buying a new harbor fake box
I’d even buy a new tool box from Sears . . . which won’t even be around long . . . before buying a harbor fake tool box
Because it’s not the same thing, not even close. One of the guys at work bought a US General setup last year, his bottom box has an empty weight of under 600 lbs, the same size Snap on box has an empty weight of over 1000 lbs. The drawers don’t work as smoothly, the sides aren’t as sturdy, it’s just not as durable or well-made.
Now that’s not to say it’s not an economical choice. There’s just no way that toolbox is going to hold up as well over 20+ years. I look at it as half the quality at a quarter of the price. It’s no secret that I think Harbor Freight stuff is disposable. Their floor jacks last us about a year before they fall apart, and I certainly am not impressed with their wrenches. But their stuff has its place.
In fact, I recently had the shop buy a US General box. We have 4 scan tools that are shop equipment and a handful of other electronic testing equipment. I got tired of the blow-molded cases or having them on shelves out in the open. So for under $400 I was able to get a toolbox to hold all these things. I drilled holes and installed grommets in the back of all the drawers and put a power strip on the back of the box so all the devices can be charged in the drawers.
It’s like anything else in life. There’s good, better, best. Snap On is for when you want the best. Harbor Freight is when good is good enough.
There was a guy years ago who bought a red tool box . . . unknown brand, but it was definitely much lower quality than Craftsman
Anyways . . . he somewhere found one of those rigid Snap-On logos and put it on the box
He patted himself on the back
But he wasn’t really fooling anybody
From 50 feet, I suppose it looked okay
But up close you could see it was just a “poser toolbox”
Odd size metric wrenches on some brake bleeders (only need a socket if they’re stuck) and on bicycles.
AT fluid for boots - in the days when AT fluid was whale oil this may have made sense, but even today it probably won’t hurt the leather and as long as the chemicals in it don’t absorb through your skin and poison your innards, or give you bad breath, it’s probably fine.
Have any of you used any of the Chinese made Craftsman tools? I don’t think thy are any better than HF and sometimes not quite as good.
Craftsman wrenches never felt as good as a good pro tool in the hand, but they were made of of very tough steel, the new ones are not.
As far as floor jacks go, I have had a large 3 ton HF jack for more than 15 years and it has given me no trouble at all. but I probably use it less in 16 years than a pro uses his in 6 months. I paid less than $50 for it, it was so long ago they used to take their coupons on everything.
Would I buy it if I was a pro? Probably not but their is just no way a do it your selfer can justify the cost of pro equipment.
Show me an amateur with a garage full of pro wrenches, jacks, cabinets and scan tools and I will show you a guy with a very expensive hobby.
Would I go under a car supported with only my harbor freight jack, of course not, I would not go under any car supported only by any jack.
AS far as hand tools, which can injure you or botch the the job, my rule has always been Craftsman or better. I guess I will have to change it to US made Craftsman or better.
I received a Craftsman set of pliers and wire cutters for Christmas . They are the lower tier set with green and black handles . To call them junk would be generous . I did buy a Craftsman Mitre Saw from Lowes and it has worked fine for the picture frames that I make .
Something else I see novices don’t consider- those slightly more gravelly drawer slides seem OK on the sales floor but wait until you have 100+lbs of tools in them…
I watched a review on youtube on a comparison between Snapon tool chest and some other brand.
They both were same size and both used the same grade steel. The big difference was each of the Snap-on drawers had one more set of drawer glides on each of the drawers then the competitor.
If I was a professional mechanic, I would want high quality tools. As an analogy, I play principal horn in a chamber orchestra and two concert bands. I want a quality instrument in my hands where I feel confident when I have solo passages, even though I am not a professional musician. I can understand a professional mechanic needing quality tools.
As a homeowner for doing household repairs, Harbor Freight tools do the job for me. If I can’t do a repair with my 3/8" drive Husky socket set and my assortment of combination wrenches, screwdrivers, etc. it is time to call the professionals with the quality tools and expertise.
Some years back, I had a graduate assistant from Thailand who asked me if I knew where she could purchase a Fluke voltmeter. I had never heard of a Fluke voltmeter, but I called a radio parts supply store that professional technicians used. Of course, they had Fluke voltmeters. My graduate assistant wanted to buy one for her brother who was studying electronic engineering in Thailand. For his work, he needed to make precise measurements. For what I do, my Radio Shack voltmeter is adequate.