Deathtrap Dryer

[terriko]

I said on twitter:

It appears someone may have stolen our broken dryer from the backyard. The gas-powered one that was going to burn down the house. Not sad.

But someone asked on fb what's up with that, so here's the longer story:

It's a slightly longer story than fits in a tweet: The broken dryer was in the backyard since they replaced it yesterday, and we'd been told someone was coming to pick it up, so when someone rang the doorbell John showed them the dryer in the backyard and they carted it off.

But then the friend/cousin of the landlord's who'd been helping with this showed up and was all "someone's coming to pick up the dryer" whereupon John said "he's already been and gone" and Cousin was all "uhh... I hope not" and it turns out that apparently they'd arranged on fb for this guy to show up and give the cousin $20 for the dryer. But he didn't give us any money, and we didn't know to ask for it (also, I'm not sure I'd ask anyone for money for Deathtrap Dryer anyhow, but that's another story about how I think gas-powered appliances with broken shutoffs shouldn't be in use).

So then Cousin was all upset and phoning the dude because we don't even know if it's the *right* guy who came to get the dryer or whether they had this whole conversation on someone's public facebook wall and some stranger was all "huh, free dryer in the backyard!" or what. John helpfully pointed out that it could, technically, be reported as theft.

Meanwhile, I am thrilled that Deathtrap Dryer is gone, and if it burns down a thief's house, so be it. ;)

In short: We didn't have to pay someone to haul away the dangerous old dryer! No matter what the landlords call it, I figure that's a win.

Comments

[ivy]

That is both fascinating as a phenomenon, and must be incredibly aggravating to everyone there. Externalized costs issues are so often like that, and one of the biggest sources of political fighting here.

[puzzlement]

There's actually probably a fairly decent fine* awaiting the car owners should they ever return to Australia, and many Europeans at least will eventually come multiple times. But it's not really a lifestyle that attracts people who worry about things like "what about if I get fined on re-entry in 7 years time?"

I don't think the car thing in particular is an especially fraught political issue. It's just a bit expensive: the council ultimately needs to pay for the car to be towed away, and for its storage during the period before it can be declared completely abandoned and sold for scrap. (Which is I think 4 weeks from being towed.) Backpackers in general can be a bit fraught, because they are noisy and as short-term visitors they naturally have lower investment in the health (general health that is, happiness and neighbourliness) of the community. But they spend money. So people interested in living in a pleasant neighbourhood end up opposed to those interested in selling services to tourists.

* In addition to littering, the vehicle is unregistered, and unregistered cars aren't supposed to be parked on the street because they lack third-party injury insurance. The fine for being caught driving such is well over $1000, I don't know what the fine for merely parking one illegally is.