The Pro Dumpster Diver Who’s Making Thousands Off Americas Biggest Retailers[potential hustle brehs]

[newarkhiphop]

@Liquid, did u know about this? Long ass article well worth the read am only posting some of the more important parts

i might do this tonight

Matt Malone doesn’t mind being called a professional dumpster diver. He tells me this a little after 2 am on the morning of July 7 as we cruise the trash receptacles behind the stores of a shopping center just off the Capital of Texas Highway in Austin. Given the image that conjures, though, it’s worth pointing out that Malone has a pretty good day job, earning a six-figure salary as a security specialist for Slait Consulting. He is also founder of Assero Security, a startup that he says has recently been offered seed money by not one but two separate investors. Nevertheless, the 37-year-old Malone does spend a good many of his off-hours digging through the trash. And the fact is, he earns a sizable amount of money from this activity—more per hour than he makes at his Slait job.

Malone stops his Chevy Avalanche next to the dumpster in back of an Office Depot. Within seconds, he’s out of the truck and sticking his magnetized flashlight to the inside of the dumpster’s wall. He heaves himself up onto the metal rim to lean inside and begins digging through a top layer of cardboard and packing materials. Half a minute later I hear what I will learn is Malone’s version of eureka: “Hell yes! Hell yes!” He comes out with a box containing a complete Uniden Wireless Video Surveillance System—two cameras and a wireless monitor—which normally retails for $419. A quick inspection reveals that it’s all in perfect condition, although someone has clearly opened and repacked it. “A return,” he says, then plunges back into the dumpster.

Ten minutes later, when he’s again behind the wheel of the Avalanche, Malone continues to tell me about the material benefits of dumpster diving. If he were to dedicate himself to the activity as a full-time job, he says, finding various discarded treasures, refurbishing and selling them off, he’s confident he could pull in at least $250,000 a year—there is that much stuff simply tossed into dumpsters in the Austin area. He lists a few recent “recoveries”: vacuums, power tools, furniture, carpeting, industrial machines, assorted electronics. Much of it needs a little love, he says, but a lot of it, like this Uniden system, is in perfect condition.

Malone started dumpster diving nine years ago, when he was working at a lower-level corporate security job. His employer had assigned him to conduct what’s called a “zero-knowledge attack” on an Austin-based company. “That means you hire me and don’t give me any information about your operation,” Malone explains. “I’m just a random guy who wants to break into your system.” The most effective way to do this was to dig through his client’s trash; many hacks and identity thefts come from information left in dumpsters. Sure enough, after just a couple of weeks of looking through the dumpsters outside the client’s offices, he had amassed a box full of documents, loaded with the confidential information of thousands of customers. (“It made quite an impression” on his client, he recalls.)

But he also discovered something else. One night while doing his research, he decided to poke around in neighboring trash bins, including the dumpster at OfficeMax. Inside he discovered “a whole bunch of printers, discontinued lines that were still in the boxes.” He took the printers home and put them in his garage. But he couldn’t stop wondering what else was out there in the dumpsters of Austin. Before long, he went back out to see what else he could find.

That sale provided several revelations. The biggest was what sold with the drive-by public. “I had all my cool stuff out front, a couple of very nice computers, mini choppers, some high-end printers—the big-ticket stuff—thinking, ‘This is what’s going to make me the money.’” It wasn’t. Instead, people flocked to “the small stuff”: the photo paper and toner he’d pulled out of the dumpsters at OfficeMax and Office Depot, the hand tools he’d found in the trash at Harbor Freight, the CDs from GameStop dumpsters, the assorted seasonal tchotchkes that had been tossed by the employees at Pier 1 and Cost Plus. “I eventually figured out that I had to sell the big stuff on Amazon or Craigslist,” Malone says. But all those small sales added up: By Sunday afternoon he had collected a little more than $3,000 in cash. “And that was when I realized, ‘This has the potential to be something.’”

Chris Philpot

Sort of. The prevailing law comes from a 1988 Supreme Court ruling in California v. Green-wood, which held that when a person throws something out in a public space, they have no reasonable expectation of privacy. In other words: Most of that stuff is fair game. Trespassing, however, is a different story. If you dig into a dumpster on private property—one that’s up against the side of a building, within a fenced enclosure, or marked “No Trespassing,” for example—you could get ticketed or even arrested. In Matt Malone’s experience this is uncommon: “I’ve never even had a cop ask me for ID.” Most police couldn’t care less about dumpster diving, Malone says, “though I have encountered a couple of cops who did care about what I was finding. I usually give them something, and it makes them really happy.” A few municipalities have passed ordinances against dumpster diving that have not yet been tested in federal court. Malone encourages divers to follow what he calls the Move Along Rule: If a store employee, security guard, or police officer tells you to “move along,” you should—without arguing or trying to explain the law to them. —R.S.

http://www.wired.com/2015/02/high-end-dumpster-diving-matt-malone/

 

[newarkhiphop]

From the comments section:

bigshynepo Ray Bertocki • 4 days ago
As the manager of a local Best Buy in my early years, we had a couple in an old station wagon that would come by and try to loot our big roll-off bin of anything they found valuable. Our problem with the practice wasn't the stealing of refuse, which, regardless of the value, is what Bestbuy considered it. Our problem was the store's liability if one of these dumpster divers slipped and impaled themselves on a broken pallet (complete with nails), sharp or broken shelving pieces, as well as acrylic and other things used in store displays.

We always told the people that they could have anything on the top they wanted but climbing in the bins wasn't allowed. They always broke the rule and finally we told them that if we caught them during business hours in the bin, we'd call the police.

For the record, stuff called "destroy in field" or DIF is thrown away in the dumpsters of Bestbuys. This is product that the vendor wants destroyed as per contract and can not be sold off. Staff can be fired for taking 'destroy in field' product so it just goes in the garbage. DIFs, that's what this man's "sealed" hauls are made up of. Every once in a while, you'll find demo'd or written off electronics as well but the condition of those items is debatable. Good luck, have fun and be careful.

 

[Liquid]

I've never done it, but I have seen people do it. I think if you are good with furniture it can turn into a highly profitable business if you live in a college town (like I do).

Shout out to @PS4

 

[killacal]

The greatest nation in the world

 

[newarkhiphop]

I've never done it, but I have seen people do it. I think if you are good with furniture it can turn into a highly profitable business if you live in a college town (like I do).

Shout out to @PS4

I'm thinking about cruising past a local best buy today idk how the white cops would react

 

[Ricky Church]

the loose term of "stealing" always had me wondering whenever I heard someone doing this.

most of these places are in shopping plaza's that are thoroughly patrolled by security cars that'll most likely tell you to keep it moving if they see you or worst comes to worse call a squad car.

this dude must be spending all his time dumpster diving if he estimates a $250k a year profit... that's insane on just selling dumpster treasure.

 

[My Girl is Bow Legged]

best buys have compactors so you ain't getting shyt outta there

I believe gamestop smartened up after that dude posted all the shyt he found on reddit

count on every other retailer to close ranks after all the copycats ruin it for everyone due to this article

 

[Hiphoplives4eva]

best buys have compactors so you ain't getting shyt outta there

I believe gamestop smartened up after that dude posted all the shyt he found on reddit

count on every other retailer to close ranks after all the copycats ruin it for everyone due to this article

exactly. the guys who wrote this article is a moron. just ruined the game for all the potential players out there.

 

[⠀⠀⠀]

people always gotta brag. should keep his hustle to himself.

no difference from a kid telling his friends how he digging out his teacher

 

[winb83]

I used to work at Target. They put all that stuff in the compactor and destroyed it only if they didn't give it to the Goodwill or Salvation Army. We used to destroy good stuff. There was always a temptation for the employees to take it but the cameras stopped that.

exactly. the guys who wrote this article is a moron. just ruined the game for all the potential players out there.

People been doing this on Youtube for years and filming themselves doing it. Okchief for example dives in Gamestop dumpsters and records his findings. This isn't some brilliant hustle. Hell Fox had a sitcom called Roc about a trashman that used to take stuff people threw out.

 

[dBoyFresh*212]

From the comments section:

wow this means you can dumbster dive and steal some good shyt then "slip and break your back" and get mad bread

 

[Pink Slime]

i tried this after i saw some dude post a load of crazy shyt he got out of a gamestop dumper

my come up was a call of duty: ghosts lanyard

i wear it with pride

 

[Artificial Intelligence]

.......................

 

[Mowgli]

Black man dumpster dive theu call the cops and charge you with stealing trash

 

[NZA]

unfortunately a black breh will be the first person to get shot over some garbage by a cop