The Junk Man

Back home, the junk man is simply a fact of life. You could expect him to come around weekly, as long as there were large items in the rubbish, and as long as he didn't linger too long or make too much noise, he wasn't a bother. This morning, though, I rang the police on the junk man. You see, we're having our gutter redone, and our gutter guy left most of the rubbish on the parkway, which I assume he was going to take away when the job was complete. About 5,30 this morning, I awoke to find my husband standing at our bedroom window...he said someone was out taking the old gutters away. I immediately assumed it was the junk man, especially as it was a large rubbish collection day, which only happens once a month, and while slightly annoyed at being woken, I figured he wouldn't be there long. How wrong was I. An hour later, I'd had enough, so I threw on my robe and went out with a pad and pen, planning to take his rego number down and ring the police. At that moment, the council rubbish truck pulled up, and while the junk man started to give me hassle, the council fella came up and said to him: "Mate, I've told you before, you get a $5,000 fine for doing that." So I asked the Tea Tree Gully Council fella if he was going to sort this or if I had to...and he simply told me to call the police:/ Of course, when I rang the police they said there wasn't much they could do. Since I had bothered to get out of bed and go outside, that really wasn't good enough, so I persisted and a few minutes later, they had our local police ring me back, who advised they'd go out to the junk man's place and tell him to be quieter next time around. Next time around, we'll have rubbish out, so I'll be up early waiting for the junk man, and if he shows and tried to nab our items, I'll ring the police back...as well as the council, to make sure he'll be getting that $5,000 fine. No one wakes me up early:/