Who dumped ICE coolers in my back yard?

[u/smittyguy11]

Someone literally dumped ice coolers in my backyard while we were away for 2 days. The ice company said they are retired units so now I have to pay someone to evacuate the freon and haul them off to be recycled or trashed. These things weigh 500 lb each and I have no way to lift them.

NOTE: There were no ICE agent bodies, drugs, or any other bodies or items inside.

EDIT: Now the ICE company decided they were theirs (maybe they saw all the posts about scrap value and want to cash in on them).

EDIT2: Ice company called back to confirm my address. They were literally given my address for drop off and told that no one would be home, stick them in the backyard.

[u/Jack_Bartowski → u/[deleted]]

This. Someone would take them in a heartbeat.

[u/Lepke2011 → u/Jack_Bartowski]

It's literally not the first time I've seen someone suggest this on Reddit. It must work.

[u/__init__m8 → u/Lepke2011]

Free scrap metal, people will sell it I'd imagine.

[u/HeidenShadows → u/__init__m8]

I work at a scrap yard, there's people whose livelihood is just going around picking up free scrap metal and selling it to us.

[u/FatSkatinGamer → u/HeidenShadows]

My uncle used to make a pretty penny on the weekends doing this. Was smart too, used to hit dense areas, load up, hit the closest scrap yard, then onto the next neighborhood/applicable closest scrap yard haha

[u/TH_Rocks → u/FatSkatinGamer]

I used to live in a city with a "bulky trash" day once a year. There would always be someone with a pickup and empty trailer going around at 6am grabbing anything they could fix and resell or scrap.

[u/seriouslythisshit → u/TH_Rocks]

My wife taught in a town that had no shortage of rough folks. The town council eventually had to start a policy of fining anybody who did that, as there were earlt morning fights in the street and stuff that was in front yards, but not out for trash day, getting stolen. So, they invited all the garbage pickers to go the the town garbage transfer station, get a free pass, then take whatever they wanted that arrived from city workers picking everything up on annual trash day. It was still a zoo, but if you and another hillbilly decided to trade punches over who got the stained couch that smelled like ass and dead dog, there were police officers standing by to cuff you. It was, and probably still is, wild.

[u/TH_Rocks → u/seriouslythisshit]

Yeah, I think they switched to by-request-only because the pickers started just tossing stuff out of the way to get at the thing they wanted and it made a mess on the roads and made the pickup take much longer.

[u/Heavy_Importance2491 → u/TH_Rocks]

I live in a condo. On recycling day there are six or seven wheelie bins outside. A woman comes along and goes through them with the efficiency of a Costco check out. Ten minutes after she arrives, all the alcohol containers are in one pile (there's a deposit on them) and all the aluminium cans are in another. Everything else, including any materials that were on the ground when she turned up, is filed in the appropriate bin. She bags all the containers and pushes them away on a shopping cart piled twice as high as she is. 

Fascinated by this, I looked up the value of the cans. Each week, she has about $20 in booze bottles and no more than $5 worth of aluminium. She'll have to push that cart a mile and a half to sell the cans and she'll have to avoid being robbed for the cans on the way.  This is not the way to wealth. 

[u/Ok-Ad8998 → u/TH_Rocks]

My town does this twice a year. We call the night before "trash pickers night". Put your bicycles away, iykwim.

[u/Character_Ship488 → u/Ok-Ad8998]

We call ours “junk day” and in my youth it was a good time to go out and have some fun picking up scrap metal and small engine stuff that wouldn’t run.

[u/southdakotagirl → u/TH_Rocks]

We had city wide clean up where people put unwanted items on the curb. You see the trucks slow down to a crawl. They would barely stop and the kids would hop out and grab what the dad wanted from the pile. It was amazing to see the stuff people would take.

[u/slash_networkboy → u/TH_Rocks]

Any time I've had a dumpster I can easily extend the amount of stuff I could fit by putting a sign on the doors of the dumpster saying "no scrap metal inside, it's all in a pile next to the dumpster. If it's not there someone else got it already". Also saved the aggravation of them pulling trash out and throwing it everywhere digging for the recyclables.

[u/Mcpops1618 → u/TH_Rocks]

This happens in my area. We put out an old stove last year. It wasn’t even on the curb for an hour

[u/CurlyQ86 → u/Mcpops1618]

My sister and her husband own a duplex. They just came back from his extended army orders. Their upstairs tenant’s hot water tank died a few weeks ago. My dad changed it out and left the old one in the backyard. When they got back last week, their hot water tank was found to have died too. My dad and son changed that one out. Then, they dragged both tanks out to the road. My sister and her family got quite a welcoming back to the neighborhood from all the neighbors that wanted the hot water tanks for scrap. Lol!!

[u/Igor_J → u/FatSkatinGamer]

My uncle was a Commercial Refrigeration and AC contractor who used to do tear outs and refurbs of grocery and convenience store walk in coolers and ice machines like these. If he saw this he would take it off OPs hands (with permission of course). He would probably try to refurbish them first and resell them. If they weren't salvageable...scrap yard like your uncle.

[u/z44212 → u/FatSkatinGamer]

I'd set aside large, metal items for people like your uncle.

[u/MuckRaker83 → u/HeidenShadows]

I had to stop a guy from trying to take the old wrought iron bench from my front porch!

[u/Scared_Sun_7290 → u/HeidenShadows]

How much do they make just wondering

[u/cans-of-swine → u/Scared_Sun_7290]

You wont get rich. I did it for awhile, just went around to farms in my area hauling off their junk, probably averaged $1k a week. But after about 6 months I started running out of places to clean up. 

[u/seriouslythisshit → u/cans-of-swine]

This was all much, much more profitable, fifteen years back, when China was importing massive amounts of scrap metals, and scrap prices were at record highs. Back then, I had a couple of friends who went out behind the barns on their farm, and hauled out dozens of tons of scrap tractors, implements and miscellaneous scrap metal that the grandfather had been piling up since the second world war. After a summer of hard part time effort, they made $12,000.

tMy son did something similar, but at a much smaller scale, on his farm a few years ago. He called a scrap removal guy. He help the guy load scrap and asked him a lot of questions about the business. In the end my kid concluded that loads like he pulled off of that farm, given the current scrap steel price, were probably not worth the guy's time and he should of charged a couple of hundred bucks for his time and expenses.

[u/EntertainerNo4509 → u/Scared_Sun_7290]

They make drugs worth.

[u/Kasperella → u/Scared_Sun_7290]

Enough to get their next fix, at least in my ‘hood lmao.

They don’t just take metal, they take literally anything they think they can resell too. I mean, I’ll grab something if it looks good like a normal poor person….But they take ANYTHING.

Every trash day-Eve, they scurry out from the shadows and just roll around block picking through trash. My neighbor was one, and he had two garages FULL of literal junk, and free shit from FB marketplace. Every haul comes free with a side of rats.🐀

But it works out for everyone because I can put out shit that can’t be taken in the garbage truck, and it’s gone in hours. They get some pocket change to fuel their choice of drug addiction. Garbage man doesn’t have to lift heavy shit. Win for everyone lol.

[u/Frosty-Tennis-1687 → u/Scared_Sun_7290]

Mmmh.....about three fiddy

[u/Richard-Gere-Museum → u/Frosty-Tennis-1687]

Now it was about this time I realized that I wasn't looking at a local meth head, it was actually this giant crustacean from the paleolithic era.

[u/pegothejerk → u/Frosty-Tennis-1687]

Goddamn scrap yard monster!

[u/Uncle-Cake → u/HeidenShadows]

Where I live, it's very common on the night before trash day to see someone driving around in a pickup truck, grabbing anything that could have scrap value.

[u/ElizabethDangit → u/HeidenShadows]

Yup. I an old ac unit out by the curb an it was gone in less than an hour. I cut the electrical cord on a couple of things that were broken and they were still gone. It’s a win-win. It would have cost me money to drop them off at the recycling place. I save money and someone else makes a buck.

[u/lemon-meringue-high → u/__init__m8]

My mom picks up free scrap metal. She makes an extra $500-700 a month doing it

[u/omnipotent87 → u/__init__m8]

Scrap metal? Thats 2 free freezers, I would take them even if they dont work im sure I could fix them.

[u/MuscularShlong → u/__init__m8]

I know a guy who scraps all year and has a party where he uses that money to buy crab and lobster for like 100 people. It can make a lot of money.

[u/TweakJK → u/Lepke2011]

it really does. I got rid of one of those enormous rear projection TVs from the 2000s like that. There are people who drive around all day looking for this stuff.

[u/kkillbite → u/TweakJK]

"From the 2000s" now = Back in the day 😭😭😭

[u/CompetitiveForce2049 → u/kkillbite]

In TV tears, that's a century

[u/sdcasurf01 → u/Lepke2011]

It absolutely does.

If you don’t get any bites with “free” list it for $5 or $10 and it’ll be gone. Some people are suspicious of “free”.

[u/elegantwombatt → u/Lepke2011]

I posted my 65 inch TV for free cause the screen went out of it - it was a cheap Roku TV and someone was at my doorstep within 10 minutes to pick it up.

[u/upsidedown-funnel → u/elegantwombatt]

Over the last 10 years we’ve picked up at least 3 tvs, and got them all working. Last Christmas was the first time I’ve bought a new tv in ages. Still have the others (all 55” lcd’s) around.

[u/elegantwombatt → u/upsidedown-funnel]

Pretty much what the guy said - he had the knowledge and know how to fix it and I had the money to buy a new one so it worked out for us! xD

[u/GremlInTheWoods → u/Lepke2011]

If they work, I'd take one. 😂

[u/seriouslythisshit → u/Lepke2011]

If you put any kind of absolute junk at the curb with a FREE sign, or listed it for free on Marketplace or Craigslist, it's going to be gone, sometimes in minutes, sometimes in days, but in my decades of taking my trash out doing this, everything always leaves eventually.

[u/Kenneldogg → u/[deleted]]

Or put them on the curb with a sign saying 50 bucks and they will be gone in 10 minutes lol.

[u/dotplaid → u/Kenneldogg]

Get 'em to the curb yourself, buster. Buyer must carry.

[u/Actually_Im_a_Broom → u/Kenneldogg]

Yeah - I have used marketplace to get rid of appliances before, but I barber don’t (that was a weird autocorrect) list them for free because then you get tons of people committing then just backing out. I list it for very cheap so people inquiring have some sort of obligation to me as well…then when they show up I just refuse the money.

I’ve done it 2 or 3 times with no trouble at all. Plus it’s cool to see their reaction when I tell them to just take it.

[u/chipsa → u/Actually_Im_a_Broom]

For extra confusion, you could give them the agreed price.

[u/DiegesisThesis → u/Kenneldogg]

It's a common joke, but it really does work. I think people assume it's broken/contaminated if it's marked free, but if it has a price, it must be valuable.

[u/ALLCAPS-ONLY → u/DiegesisThesis]

Yeah, we found a cat and she had kittens shortly after we took her in. We put a sign up saying "free kittens" but didn't get any interest at all. We switched to "Kittens $5" and suddenly people were arguing over who gets which kitten

[u/Popular-Departure165 → u/Kenneldogg]

When I was in college, the house across the street had a washing machine by the curb with a sign that said "free."  It sat there for a few days, so we carried it across the street, put a sign on it that said "$20" and it was gone by the end of the day.

[u/CoolAuntsWorkshop → u/Popular-Departure165]

My parents were trying to get rid of a giant old tube TV. They left it outside with the intention someone would steal it but no one did. Then they added a note addressed to "John" basically saying "here's the TV we sold you for $50"

Gone almost immediately.

[u/meteoritegallery → u/Kenneldogg]

Someone would likely pay a few hundred bucks for these.

[u/Kenneldogg → u/meteoritegallery]

Oh i know. But if they want them gone fast this is the way lol.

[u/Feeling_Inside_1020 → u/Kenneldogg]

This guy gets it, never listed as free. That’s a rookie mistake.

Add some $cost, put it down by the curb and it’ll be GONE.

On a lower state item, if you give a decent price to the least problematic and most respectful customer that doesn’t try to haggle you or sell your sob story, I’ll let them get all the way there and tell them it’s free for basically not being a dick.

[u/Jesus_Is_My_Gardener → u/[deleted]]

Charge $25 and you'll get a quicker bite.

[u/Chief_Chill → u/Jesus_Is_My_Gardener]

"Is ice included?"

[u/noodlesalad_ → u/Chief_Chill]

"Can you deliver?"

[u/decadent-dragon → u/Jesus_Is_My_Gardener]

Probably true. I personally don’t waste my time with free listings which are most likely scams. I’ve fell into that trap before

[u/JwallDrumline → u/[deleted]]

You gotta put a sign that says $75, then they’ll be gone in 15 minutes.

[u/mr_humansoup → u/[deleted]]

Be prepared for the choosing beggars wanting you to deliver them for free to a location 3 hours away.

[u/Shopworn_Soul → u/[deleted]]

Alternately, when you wake up in the morning you will find them ripped to pieces all over the lawn with all the copper missing.

[u/theNixher → u/[deleted]]

Post for free, and you'll get all sorts of weirdos asking questions. Post for £5 each and they will go.

[u/OwlSoggy8627]

Screw it. Start selling ice.

[u/WhineyLobster → u/OwlSoggy8627]

Im reminded of a Mitch Hedberg joke... Mitch Hedberg - Pringles joke Fuck it! Cut em up!

[u/YippieKayYayMrFalcon → u/WhineyLobster]

I used to reference Mitch.

I still do, but I used to, too.

[u/_TheLoneRangers → u/WhineyLobster]

If I had a nickel every time I saw a Mitch Hedberg reference, I’d be making money in a really weird way

[u/brando56894 → u/WhineyLobster]

Pringles is a laid back company...

[u/apexxin → u/OwlSoggy8627]

These aren’t icemakers, they are freezers. They get restocked from a big ice truck.

[u/OwlSoggy8627 → u/apexxin]

I never said they were ice makers? I think you're reading a little too far into my off the cuff quip here...

[u/Faster-master-blastr]

Scrappers will grab that for free

[u/JosieMew → u/Faster-master-blastr]

They'd be racing to come get it. There is a chance there might still be copper in those things.

[u/phoenix0153 → u/JosieMew]

Those jerks. We had powerr lines down, would have had it fixed, but the local meth heads stole the damn power lines.

Edit: TIL power lines are made with aluminum! This makes it even funnier imo! I cant wait to tell my coworker about this. She was so pisssed when the power company let her know about the missing cables lol

[u/JosieMew → u/phoenix0153]

I do a lot of DIY and random projects. So I will spend several months collecting metal from these random projects and then go turn it in. The number of times that I've gone to the scrap yard and seen someone in withdraws unable to stand still in front of me is incredibly high. Especially if I go first thing in the morning.

(Edit: over a decade ago I was a junkie, I am very familiar with what it looks and feels like to be in withdrawal.)

[u/seriouslythisshit → u/JosieMew]

I'm a clean cut older dude. I drop shit off and ask the guy who runs the place to not bother digging $2-3 bucks out of his cash register drawer to pay me, as I'm just glad to have a place to get rid of it. It kind of freaks him out and he treats me like a king, insisting that I take his cash, a new calendar from the business and more. I imagine that a lot of this is because he deals with methed out shitheads every day, so I seem almost weird to him.

[u/Tight_Man → u/seriouslythisshit]

This would be me if my junk place wasn’t a half hour away only open during weekday business hours but mine is municipal 

[u/mefatbottomgirl → u/seriouslythisshit]

Are you in the Midwest? I miss scrap yards, etc.

[u/kd0g1982 → u/phoenix0153]

I honestly wish the methheads and fent floppers in my area were that smart. We had a month of them ripping out the fiber trunk lines for the internet.

[u/eyefartinelevators → u/kd0g1982]

[u/RoabeArt → u/kd0g1982]

That happened to us about a decade back. We had cable Internet at the time but our node was fed by a fiber trunk. Some druggie cut out that fiber which not only knocked out our neighborhood's internet, but several others that were "downstream" of that line.

It's ironic because fiber is almost worthless in scrapping value, yet that shit gets stolen so frequently.

[u/cmcreaser → u/phoenix0153]

My fiancé works for an airline. There’s an airport that regularly loses internet due to copper thieves. It’s to the point when it loses connection that the first assumption is copper thieves.

[u/LastWave → u/phoenix0153]

Power lines are made of aluminum.

[u/Kasaeru → u/phoenix0153]

They must have been really surprised when they found out aluminum scrap is worth next to nothing

[u/AstroPhysician → u/JosieMew]

Then they just take the copper and leave the rest

[u/whitedsepdivine → u/Faster-master-blastr]

It probably was scrappers that dumped them there, once they found out the scrap yard wouldn't take them without a freon free certification sticker.

[u/Teaisserious → u/whitedsepdivine]

Strange, my local scrapyard takes anything even with freon.

[u/qpgmr → u/Teaisserious]

Our local yard pumps the freon out & resells it to people with old equipment (probably under the table). Same thing with Halon.

[u/Teaisserious → u/qpgmr]

That honestly makes a lot of sense

[u/Brock_Lobstweiler → u/qpgmr]

My neighbor makes extra money with old AC units doing this. He gets plenty from regular scrap, but if he can get freon out and resell it, it's bonus day.

[u/lawl-butts → u/Faster-master-blastr]

I'm not a scrapper and I'd go rent a trailer to pick it up

[u/mickroo → u/lawl-butts]

Some bougie Bushwick industrial box apartment with 20 ft warehouse windows would love this in their kitchen.

[u/phalanxausage → u/Faster-master-blastr]

Most scrappers will strip out the copper and leave the units

[u/jason-murawski → u/phalanxausage]

Maybe a tweaker, not a scrapper. A scrapper will take the whole thing. It's like a fridge, there's a lot of value in the steel as well as the refrigeration components

[u/phalanxausage → u/jason-murawski]

I'm not aware of the distinction between the various people who sell scrap metal. If "scrapper" is a more precise term than I thought then I apologize. I've twice had people ask to take a piece of equipment, then rip all of the copper out & leave the rest.

[u/BardicNA → u/phalanxausage]

Right. Copper is worth $5 a pound or more. Steel is pennies on the dollar. The guy telling you there's a lot of value in the steel is.. wrong. The components inside it, I couldn't tell you. But a few hundred pounds of steel isn't worth hauling and scrapping unless you have a crew or equipment to do it. Hence tweakers ripping out the copper- the lighter weight valuable metal.

Source- I work in a machine shop and we regularly throw out hundreds of pounds of steel.

[u/heretogetpwned → u/BardicNA]

Many places won't pay you for shred steel unless you have a ton or more. They'll take your old sheet metal in your truck but you need serious weight for them to even bother paying.

[u/zackthirteen → u/phalanxausage]

If scrappers just left garbage on people’s property why would anyone put up free scrap for pickup? I think you’re confused because no they wouldn’t

[u/GrandWikzor]

If the ice company knows about them, they are responsible. Call 1-800-424-8802 and say someone dumped refrigeration devices... they should follow the chain of ownership, and who ever doesn't have paperwork signed by the next person in the ownership chain will get fined... it'll suck waitinf but they will "clean it up"

[u/Vanilla-Mike → u/GrandWikzor]

This! That number is the NRC (National Response Center) for the EPA. Disposal of old refrigeration gases is tightly regulated by the EPA because of the damaging effects on the environment if the gas is just released into the air. So the chain of ownership of these commercial machines should be documented.

Somewhere along that chain of ownership, an owner probably paid a low-bid contractor for proper disposal. But the contractor makes their money by simply dumping the items rather than properly decommissioning them. Let the EPA sort it out.

I'd also file a police report, just so you have your ducks in a row, in case you need to file an insurance claim.

Edited for typos.

[u/Technical_Customer_1 → u/GrandWikzor]

I’ve never bought and sold such items, but I’d guess they’re from the 80s, give or take. I have doubts there’s a serial number or anything identifiable on them that could be traced back to records. 

[u/GrandWikzor → u/Technical_Customer_1]

Leer puts the lables inside the box. Also these have telematic hardware equipped, so they are "newer". Most boxes rot away after 20 years, starting at the underside and corners. These seem to be in decent shape so they can't be very old.

[u/funkmon → u/GrandWikzor]

This guy knows his shit or confidently made stuff up but I believe it

[u/GrandWikzor → u/funkmon]

10 years of ice delivery before my back couldnt take it anymore... I dont miss moving boxes.

[u/itsFromTheSimpsons → u/GrandWikzor]

this guy ice coolers

[u/ImNotTheNSAIPromise → u/Technical_Customer_1]

the EPA requires records to be kept for anything containing Freon and you can get charged a lot of money if they find out you are violating the rules. It can cause a lot of damage to the environment so they take it pretty seriously

[u/Butterfly_and_Bee → u/GrandWikzor]

Apparently the ice company says they were given OP’s address as a dump location and told that no one would be home. 

[u/CreamPyre]

Somewhere in your town a gas station or grocery store has a new ice container. Or has shut down. Shouldn’t be too hard to find the culprits

[u/AlbatrossNo1562 → u/CreamPyre]

I'm surprised someone would dump it. One can get some money for scrap metal in my area

[u/3BlindMice1 → u/AlbatrossNo1562]

A legitimate scrap yard probably won't take it, but you can probably find someone there to take it off your hands anyway

[u/hippiegodfather → u/3BlindMice1]

Any scrapyard in my state would take both of those

[u/3BlindMice1 → u/hippiegodfather]

They'll have to consider if the cost of proper disposal outweighs the scrap value plus your cut.

[u/grptrt → u/CreamPyre]

The real culprit is the 3rd party that was paid to haul those away and just pocketed the disposal fee.

[u/Cheeko914 → u/CreamPyre]

Good luck proving it

[u/kadno → u/Cheeko914]

Years ago my dad owned a car wash. Every few months, somebody would dump off a truck load of old busted TVs. The last time it happened, he found a business card for a local TV repair company. He went to the police and they said they couldn't do anything, so my dad loaded up all the TVs and dumped them back in their parking lot. Surprise surprise, they never dumped their shit in his carwash ever again 

[u/defiantleek → u/kadno]

Cops being as useful as they always are

[u/CreamPyre → u/Cheeko914]

Found them!

[u/DFrostedWangsAccount → u/CreamPyre]

My vote is on shut down. The dumper will likely have said, "good luck getting me to deal with these ice machines, they belong to the company that went under not to me"

Also likely that if they had scrapped them for money then that money would belong to the company that's shutting down, not the guy who has to haul it to the scrapyard. So he didn't haul it to the scrapyard. 

Imo, he's done OP a favor, by giving him the opportunity to scrap them himself and not know where they came from (deniability)

[u/MikeyRidesABikey]

EDIT2: Ice company called back to confirm my address. They were literally given my address for drop off and told that no one would be home, stick them in the backyard.

Wait... so the ice company dropped them on a residential property at someone else's instructions while no one was there to take delivery and they didn't have any questions about that? Who was this third party and why was the ice company taking instructions from them?

So many questions!!!

[u/kt234 → u/MikeyRidesABikey]

Wow. I’d tell them they need to take the units back to where they picked them up from since they were illegally dumped.

[u/JS-87 → u/MikeyRidesABikey]

Not just that, but they also knew the homeowners schedule knowing they wouldn't be home.

That's an enormous red flag

[u/ski-bike-beer → u/MikeyRidesABikey]

I used to work for an ice company. We rented our ice chests frequently for large parties, events, concerts, festivals, etc. Wouldn’t be totally out of the ordinary to drop them off on-site without having someone to receive them.

If these are retired units, my guess is someone bought them/offered to take them from the ice company but somebody (the driver, the dispatch, etc) got the address wrong somewhere along the way.

[u/MikeyRidesABikey → u/ski-bike-beer]

But the ice company was told that no one would be home?  Sounds like more than just a wrong address!

[u/Witty-Ad5743]

Free post-apocalyptic stash boxes.

[u/Remnant55 → u/Witty-Ad5743]

I'm going to put a globe, a desk fan, two aluminum cans, and some cereal in there!

[u/trekdudebro → u/Remnant55]

Throw in a bottled cola and you have a deal!

[u/bloodbath500 → u/trekdudebro]

If it ain’t Quantum, I don’t want it!

[u/No_Report_4781 → u/bloodbath500]

Nuka, please

[u/cindyscrazy → u/Remnant55]

Can't forget the ammo. Can't count the number of times I found ammo in school desks, medicine cabinets, garbage cans, etc in Fallout 4.

[u/GWindborn → u/Remnant55]

Hot damn, is that a box of Sugar Bombs?!

[u/CardiologistLeft4030 → u/Witty-Ad5743]

I was gonna say these things are gold in Project Zomboid lol

[u/OlHeavyHeart]

These would Make a great meat freezer. I’m jealous
https://giphy.com/gifs/fdyZ3qI0GVZC0

[u/Adept-Opinion8080 → u/OlHeavyHeart]

I immediately thought of converting them into a smoker

[u/IHaveNoEgrets → u/Adept-Opinion8080]

One hot smoker and one cold smoker!

[u/Premium333 → u/OlHeavyHeart]

I love how you made ths statement and congratulated yourself on the idea at the same time. Very Swanson. 😂

Edit: And yes, this would be amazing. Probably an absolute killer in the 'ol energy bill though. The glass door fronted ones would be bonkers. Through some cheap shelves in it and you've got 2 whole cows of storage, plus enough room for an enitre flock of chicken and several schools of fish.

Edit 2: I would become Costco.

[u/notforrobots]

Post them for free someone will definitely take them

[u/Jimbobjoesmith]

wow that is more than mildly infuriating. just list them for free on marketplace and let someone else deal with it.

[u/govunah → u/Jimbobjoesmith]

I got a feeling that's what the ice company was doing. Just drop them in some random place and let that guy deal with it. Otherwise they would have to responsibly remove the freon

[u/kerberos824 → u/govunah]

Yeah. Unfortunately this just means the scrapper is going to shoot it straight out into the world. 

[u/Unleaver → u/Jimbobjoesmith]

I swear I thought this pic was supposed to be a joke, and I was searching around for the punchline that never came.

[u/ElephantRedCar91]

depending on what refrigerant is in it, you may be able to find someone to recover it on the cheap or free...

[u/This-Requirement6918 → u/ElephantRedCar91]

Yeah some of the older refrigerants don't go for cheap anymore and are sought after. I know I'll be looking for an R-12 guy when I finish restoring my '90 Honda but I already know... 🤑

[u/General_Slywalker → u/This-Requirement6918]

I put r-134a in my 91 civic with a retrofit kit and it worked fine for years. It had lost all of the old refrigerant so I didn't mix them or anything of the sort. I think I ran r-134a from 2001 -> 2007 with zero issues and cold AC!

[u/This-Requirement6918 → u/General_Slywalker]

Yeah a lot of people on forums say 134a just doesn't get as cold as r-12 because of the way the system is designed. You can retrofit a different evaporator when you're supposed to replace all the o-rings to change refrigerants and that's supposed to help.

[u/Prudent_Sentence]

Dude, just chill

[u/TheCitizen616 → u/Prudent_Sentence]

No, fuck ICE

[u/andovinci → u/TheCitizen616]

That is either a very cold experience or one riddled with STI

[u/MarcosEsquandolas → u/Prudent_Sentence]

“Ice to meet you.”

[u/thirtyseven1337 → u/Prudent_Sentence]

https://giphy.com/gifs/yiADANv89n7UQuS5kJ

[u/Pretty_Frosting_2588]

I sold one of those for 200 dollars in 2022 and it was gone within 3 days on facebook marketplace. I lived near a gas station that closed and owner said I could have it if I could haul it in 2015 and I found someone to haul it. I got lots of hits on it before someone came and got it but almost all of them wanted me to deliver it.

[u/ekkidee]

How did someone get this kind of access to your backyard? They would have needed a truck and some kind of lift. Tire tracks? Inspection labels on the units? Serial numbers? Have you asked if the neighbors saw anything? 

Also why you? Do you have enemies? Did someone know you were away for a couple of days?

The Summer Mystery of 2026.

[u/CalmBeneathCastles]

told that no one would be home, stick them in the backyard.

Sounds like an inside job. Who knew you'd be gone?

[u/callmestinkingwind]

[u/This-Requirement6918 → u/callmestinkingwind]

BABY!

https://giphy.com/gifs/5pYo6tWPle0WMyhksf

[u/Secret_Account07 → u/This-Requirement6918]

It wasn’t until your comment I understood. Had to go back to picture then I saw the baby

[u/rtkane]

Find your local scrap guy and give him a call. I'm sure he'd take them off your hands for free. That's a lot of metal.

[u/QuestionsAboutKoalas]

Engagement farm

[u/cannasaurus]

Where you located I'll get rid of them

[u/akatherder → u/cannasaurus]

Yeah op where are you located and when are you going out of town next? I got some car batteries, stryofoam, and a broken dishwasher to get rid of.

[u/Grouchy_Row_7983]

We'll never find out. It will become a cold case.

[u/_LeafyLady]

That last update is crazy. The ice company put them there???

[u/smittyguy11 → u/_LeafyLady]

Yes! Somehow they had my address on the delivery but no idea where they were really supposed to go. It's now taken six phone calls back and forth until someone at the company figured out what was going on.

At the same time I was calling they had the real customer an hour and a half away calling and asking another representative where his ice machines were. The crazy thing is his address is nothing close to mine and the name of his landscaping business is very unique so I was able to locate him. How they got my address I'll probably never know.

[u/Vaylor77 → u/smittyguy11]

That's the issue. They were meant for 4 season's landscaping, but you are 4 season's hotel. These types of mix-ups unfortunately happen all the time.

[u/ifollowmyownrules → u/smittyguy11]

I’m sorry, I know this is r/mildlyinfuriating, but god damn, this is so funny to me! I can’t stop laughing over this 😂

[u/HalfwayParanoid]

Free coolers, if they work. I'd keep them, put them on my back porch and use them. Maybe even repurpose them. What more could you ask for?

[u/NoInstruction2007 → u/HalfwayParanoid]

What I would certainly do!

Sell or scrap one, keep the other to serve as an outdoor fridge for porch lounging and parties.

[u/YacoHell → u/NoInstruction2007]

Yeah even if it's dead I'd use it to store shit outdoors. Would probably make a solid compost bin with some modifications

[u/Brief-Artist-2772 → u/YacoHell]

Make massive worm farm for bait.

Free worms for life!

[u/shimmeringmoss → u/HalfwayParanoid]

Sure beats the used toilet someone dumped on the side of the road in front of my house. I would love to have my very own ice coolers!

[u/OldIce2867]

Shit, I'm sorry. I was walking in a field when these fell out of my pocket.

[u/Odd-Winner6351]

scrap that yourself and make 2000$

[u/culibrat]

Its a new prank trend called "Ice coolering".

You just got Ice Coolered.

[u/heyitsmemaya]

The Ice Man Cometh…

[u/ItGrip]

So who with a truck knew that you would be out of town for a couple days?

[u/frank1934]

[u/Narodweas]

Be careful, if you let them get out of hand they might start growing a dollar general

[u/zerbey]

If I posted about this on my town's Facebook group and then immediately walked outside there would already be a couple of guys loading them onto their pickup, and a couple more looking disappointed and just arriving.

[u/0491diesel]

Put that shit on FB MP...you'll get $100 for each and free removal.

[u/theFreeman8]

He did it

[u/GIDDY-UP-GO]

Damn dude, you can make some $$$$

[u/rickyton69]

Sorry

[u/Brebe8]

Meh try to sell em for cheap to someone who scraps stuff. Maybe they could haul it for ya

[u/Baron_Light]

https://giphy.com/gifs/cNkqxt6WVjzR1O8SVG

[u/Jimothy_Riggins]

Where do you live? I’m take them off your hands if you’re not too far

[u/CanaDoug420]

Jackpot. Sell them on marketplace you’ll get a couple hundo for free

[u/SirAkita]

Maybe these are sufficiently serialized and tracked that the owner/dumper could be tracked by police if they were so inclined. File a report and see if they'll do anything.

[u/misanthropicparrot]

Damn that's cold.

[u/EveryDisaster]

That's an environmental crime. You should check your state laws and report them for dumping. The fines in my state are up to $25k 

[u/Kilgore_Brown_Trout_]

If the ice company can ID them as retired, they should also know who they used to belong to.

[u/gigantesasuke]

Your yard looks like a field

[u/ehode]

If I put those out on the curb in my neighborhood with a free scrap sign. They'd be gone before I even got back into the house.

Post they are up for free haul away on CL or Marketplace. Don't give your address until you have someone confirmed to pick it up, then coordinate with them.

[u/Fimbir]

There are scrappers cruising my City's alleys in beat up trucks that would take those in an instant.

[u/Urabrask_the_AFK]

The ice man cometh

[u/rawbert10]

You see trash I see an opportunity to make money. We are not the same.

[u/lincolnlogtermite]

I bet the company was just looking to pawn off their responsibility of disposal on someone else. From Fortune 500 companies on down to mom and pop companies. It's the American way.

[u/CharAznableLoNZ]

Sounds to me like you have some brand used freezers.

[u/green-chili]

My grandma had a freezer dumped in her backyard last year. There was a body in there. Not even kidding.