White Trash

An adult daughter called police after arriving at her elderly father's house and noticing a strange truck parked in the driveway. Her father had been placed in a medical facility a few months prior and she was checking on his 'empty' house.

I and two other officers entered the home to search for burglars. There was nobody inside but we were shocked when we opened the door to a back bedroom and saw this:

The room was so full of junk I couldn't back up enough to get a good photo. You can see the opening to a closet in the background. The pile of trash was about six feet tall and stretched from one wall to the other. There appeared to be some furniture behind the great wall of garbage but we couldn't see behind it clearly.

The woman was convinced people had been burglarizing the house for months. She told us she had not been inside the house for three years but wanted to come inside and see what was missing. We held our breath as she approached the back bedroom. We anticipated her reaction of shame/disgust/embarassment and she walked into the refuse room.

"Oh my God!" she muttered.
(Feeling her shame, I remainded quiet.)
"There's a bunch of stuff missing from in here.", she added.
"From this room?", my squadmate asked, "What stuff is missing?"
"I'm not sure but there was a lot more stuff in here three years ago and now it's gone.", she insisted.

In my mind I pictured a band of ruthless burglars masterminding the repeated break-in of this home to steal countless bags of trash. What a score! This goldmine of cardboard, aluminum, glass, and plastic #2 would be any recycler's paradise. These clever thiefs were wise enough to pass up the electronics, jewelry, and guns in the house and focused on the highly lucrative rubbish.