The people who were evicted prob had plenty of time to sell that pool table themselves before they were evicted. I’m assuming of course that they were aware that they were not paying their rent and that they knew that defaulting on rent=eviction. If they bought it they prob didn’t need anyone to suggest to them that they could sell it. In this day and age pretty much everyone has access to the internet either through someone else they know or the public library. They could have given it to a family member or friend. They could have bartered it for moving help with the rest of their stuff. If they were the ones who dumped it out on the curb, then they didn’t even want it. Katie and Hubby saw a pool table sitting in a trash pile and picked it up. I see nothing wrong with that. It was garbage at that point.

And may I ask how you would know what Jesus would have told them to do? Have you read the entire Bible or are you speaking on behalf of someone you don’t even know? Did you know that the Bible says we should not harvest everything from our fields but leave some of it behind for the poor to come pick up for themselves (totally paraphrased). I don’t know Katie’s situation, but in general people who are rolling in money don’t pick through other people’s garbage. It was Katie and Hubby or the landfill.

If the evicted party had a pool table that was worth $600 USED but was not paying their rent….then maybe losing their pool table was a blessing for them. I know that I have learned many a lesson the hard way through the pain of the consequences of my actions and after that major pain, I made sure not to make the same bad decisions again. One episode of pain to learn a lesson that will make my next 80 years easier….One $600 loss to teach someone that they need to plan better financially or go back to school or watch their spending, or get a second job, or build a community of people who would be willing to help them, or find out which charities out there are willing to help them if they ever find themselves in this situation again….

Anyway, we could spend forever arguing the hypothetical situations of all involved, but the bottom line is that picking up trash before the garbage men get it is not wrong-legally or morally. I really admire the sweetness of your heart though, that you immediately leapt to concern for who you perceived was the injured party. Just maybe please don’t consider all pain or loss or inconvenience to be a negative thing. A lot of good lessons are learnt through pain. And… also please don’t use Jesus to shame someone. He’s really precious to some of us and we don’t appreciate it when people say things in His name that He maybe wouldn’t say. The Bible says some pretty clear things about poverty and what everyone is responsible to do about it.

Thanks.

Of course we’ll post this comment (along with your previous one). We don’t delete comments when folks disagree (unless it gets really ugly and there are expletives). We usually just delete spam.

xo,
s

I should probably just refrain from reading comments on blogs.

That’s amazing! Congrats! Gotta love the power of craigslist!

xo,
s

Good luck with everything!

xo,
s

We have had nothing but great craigslist interactions, but if it’s beyond your comfort zone we’d never push it on you or anything! Most people love anything for free – and not even having to let them into your house, just letting them get to work outside seemed pretty risk-free. Of course if you have a sprinkler system that you’re afraid they’ll dig up that’s another story! Haha. The sad thing is that if your tree is dead on one side it might not be savable. Maybe try bringing a pic to a greenhouse to see what they think and if they think it can be saved then try craigslist if you’re comfortable? Good luck!

xo,
s