Is Homeland Security checking what you dump?

Not sure if this belongs here so mods feel free to move it......if you desire.

On my monthly trek to the local dump I seen guys walking around in orange vests. They appeared to be really interested in what 'one' dumps now. They didn't go through the stuff, but made visual observation. Not only that when I was ready to leave they circled the truck again and looked in the cab! Hey... they are welcome to have my trash.
Hmmmmmm.......maybe I should start shreading some stuff uh?

aAtually as a general precaution you should burn any paper documents you dont want people reading. There are companies that for a fee will reconstruct documents, even confeti-cut ones. As for the people checking out the garbage, ask them what they are doing, their response (or lack thereof) will give you a start on what exactly they are doing picking through it.

It's in the public domain so anyone can "dig around" at the local dump..or your trash can on the curb for that matter.
There are Garbologists ...they could be that

www.eeeurope.org...

you can reconstruct burned paper if the sheet is intact...just like you can reconstruct a "formatted" hard drive (write zeros to the drive to get rid of the data)

if the document is important..why toss it?


[edit on 24-12-2004 by NetStorm]

Next time they do that, just ask them, especially if they look in the cab of your truck. They have a right to examine dumped garbage; anybody does. Looking for toxic waste, etc. They have no right to look in your truck.

Or, just play with their minds. When they start to circle your truck, hurry up and throw a towel over your lunchbox or whatever.

As an aside, one can learn a whole lot about a culture by examining their garbage.

Let us know what they are looking for, OK? I'm curious now.

This world is getting weird, everyday, but my husband is a freak when it comes to personal information and INTERNET.

He destroys any papers with our name on it, and he always tells me to never to throw away anything without him taking a look at it first.

Funny our landfill can be seen from the highway and all I see is people digging in the trash.

And they don't look like men's in black.

And you have to remember is a lot if identity thief out there.

Well, if they're looking at someone specifically I would imagine the garbage is a good place to look for evidence.

I once looked in the garbage to get the name of the owner of a house that appeared to be in slight disrepair to ask if they were interested in selling it even though it wasn't for sale. I wrote his name from a piece of junk mail and then looked on the internet for his phone number. I talked to him and made an offer on the house and actually came very close to a purchase. Though I could have just as easily have looked up tax records for that information, it was an easy way to get a name.

Originally posted by jsobecky
Or, just play with their minds. When they start to circle your truck, hurry up and throw a towel over your lunchbox or whatever.

I'm going to have to remember that one jso, when I want to make the snoops more nervous or snoopier, thanks.

One thing I do--shred something, dump some in one trash bag, some in another...so their chances of reassembling things are virtually nil.

Another thing I've done--if I get a PIN number for some card I have, I carefully burn out the number, shred the rest, toss it out.

Watch--if you charge a paper shredder on your credit card at Staples, you'll probably get checked out!

I shread everything that has personal information or has any financial purpose and then that usually gets seperated in to seperate bags which go into seperate dumpsters. Can't be too careful.

Our trash dump has full time inspectors that look for lots of things, like toxic stuff etc...
They can (based on the municipal truck and approx location within the truck) tell what street / neighborhood the trash is from.

Makes sense for homeland doing some investigation, the FBI has been know to confiscate trash in the past, or close off sections of a landfill when looking for something.

Next time you go to the dump.....put on a terrorist mask and obscure your license plate. Then watch what they do.

They are probably like the employees at our local dump. They check to make sure everything is going into the correct dumpsters. You know like metal goes into the metal bin, brush goes into its own separte bin etc etc.
I have seen them point out to people numerous times that they are getting ready to dump something in the wrong bin. They also check to make sure you aren't putting oil and other things into the other bins, they have their own receptacles, so they can be recycled or disposed of properly.

I would imagine the same thing goes on in many dumps around the country. Its probably due more to envioronmental concerns than anything else.

Like other people stated once your garbage hits the curb it is no longer you property and anyone can take it. Cops can go through your garbage without a search warrant. There is alot you can learn about a person from their garbage. Private detectives often use this tactic and so will the goverment they even develop system that can reconstruct papers that have been cut up.

That's a long, tedious, and frankly wasteful project. There are much more pressing issues at hand in my opinion. I guess that's easier than sitting in a trench though.

I recently visited a 3rd world country and stayed at the only decent hotel there. I bumped into someone I knew from many years ago and he was the Director of Rooms. Now, this was a fair sized hotel, more than 300 rooms. We got to talking about old times and as to what I was doing there. At the end of the evening, I was amazed at the information he could provide (accuracy not verified) on quite a few guests, what they were in town for, whether they had anyone over for the night, their preferences in and out of bed, condom user or not, etc etc. So, do be careful what you leave in the trash....

Next episode of Dumb Terrorists: Maids find plutonium in trash can. Man arrested with suitcase nuke...

Not the same country now. But recently visited Jakarta (Indonesia). City is in a lockdown. Would not be surprised that maids and bellboys are actually briefed to "sniff" out the happenings in the rooms too.

Originally posted by groingrinder
Next time you go to the dump.....put on a terrorist mask and obscure your license plate. Then watch what they do.

That'd probably earn you a one-way ticket to Guantanamo Bay....

The MIO's Men in Orange were not the local dump guys. I've been going there for years and know the regulars. I was driving my White Test Site truck with an Area 51 sticker......no reason to suspect me!
I think I'll pass on some of the suggestions, unless Guantanamo Bay has jacuzzis.

Seriously though....I don't throw anything that would have my S.S. number, mother's maiden name, D.O.B. yada...yada...yada. Mainly just trash, like those credit card companies are constantly sending you. But I guess even those should be shredded and burned too. They have your address on them! There are signs at the dump which read "No Scavenging" We do have different pits we have to go to like..... the household pit, yard trash pit, ashes pit, and the really smelly one the dead animal pit. But this hasn't been a problem there's pit signs all, over the place!

There could be a reason why the M.I.O.'s are here we probably got more toxic waste than most, because of the miner's and the chemicals they use.

Great, next time throw some fake "classified" report or fake blueprints for a huge terrosist attack in the bin, watch the terroralert go from code yellow to red with green and blue dots in 24 hours....