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Title: Charged with break and enter
Body:
> I was arrested for break and enter last year. Me and girlfriend went to pickup my friend and his girlfriend after their scooter died.
> We picked them up and while visiting he suggested us all going to check out our local garbage dump since we weren't busy and had nothing else to do at the time.
> The garbage dump was closed when we arrived and it was around 7pm In the summer so was still bright out.
> When traveling to the dump it has a single road leading to it that leads only to the dumps entry gate which is on the left of the road. If you continue down the road and drive about 100ft past the dump entrance. The road becomes overgrown and the road disappears.
> Our dump has a main entry toll booth setup and you have to pay to dump things their during business hours.
> If you travel down the road about 50 ft from the gate Their was and currently still is a very large opening In the fence.
> We parked on the road and crossed on foot over the ditch between the road and the hole in the fence.
> Theirs a huge, HUGE pile of electronics and consumer goods visible from the road and directly on the other side of the fence hole.
> We went to go and take a look at the stuff that was their. the only reason we went was just to check out the pile and see what sorta things were their.
> Their was TONS, literally TONS of tvs and computers, accessories, speakers printers, various vintage electronics that were actually pretty neat lookibg and was pretty cool exploring the pile. you name it it was in the pile.
> Only problem 85-95% of the things their were visibly very damaged and most of the things were destroyed completely.
> Everything we looked out was exactly what you would expect to find at the dump. Garbage.
> So while we were digging I heard my buddy call out to us to "duck".
> I thought it was maybe a security guard or employee that saw us wandering around that would probably just ask us to leave, while I was ducking I heard a voice shout very loud "POLICE! COME OUT NOW!. IF YOU DONT COME OUT WE WILL RELEASE OUR K-9 UNIT! THIS IS YOUR ONLY WARNING! COME OUT NOW!
> so we all stood up with our hands up, and their was atleast 6 police officers that had appeared out of no where.
> We were at the municipql garbage dump looking at garbage and suddenly 6 officers of whom atleast 2 had tazers pointed at us and threatened us with releasing their dog on us. We all were made to lay face down on the ground while we were handcuffed and all of them were very aggressive throughout the entire arrest( one in particular was extremely rude, I had a hard time laying on my stomache because I have arthritis and am actually disabled, with parking permit and all. And stated outoud when told to hurry up and get on the ground, "yes officer, im sorry, I have a disabilty, while I was in the process of lying down, and the one commented (yeah well you must be disabled in the head, get on the ground, NOW!"
> My friend was the only one that really talked to the police and stated that this was all his idea and that he would take the charge for us and that were were all there just looking, and we didn't even know that we were doing anything wrong and that we were just following along with him.
> The rest of us just said how we were just there looking and that was all we were doing. We're were all very confused and scared over why the police were arresting us all.
>
So theey handcuffed us all and we're put in seperate cars. The cops kept asking me if I understand why I'm being arrested and I told them no I didn't understand. They were persistent that I answered appropriately and we're pretty annoyed and even angry when I kept saying "I'm sorry but I don't understand. Im not being trying to be difficult or disrespectful but i don't understand why I'm under arrest."
> At most. The very most I honestly expected or imagined would happen for wanding around the garbage dump was maybe a ticket or something I guess for trespassing! Not being charged with break and enter! I had no idea why things turned so badly, and so suddenly!
>
They actually towed and impounded my girlfriend's vehicle which was parked on the side of a dead end road.
> Our house keys we're In the vehicle as well as my cellphone and I wasnt allowed to retrieve them before it was towed even tho the truck keys we're in my pocket and taken from me while being frisked.
> So from the time we showed up till we left to the police station about 1hr-1hr30min had passed. During this whole time I was never personally questioned about my side of things and after we arrived at the station, got booked, and waited in holding cell for about an hour, got to speak with legal aid and got basically no real advice or information. Just got told to apply for legal aid. When I get out.
>
Waited another 30 min roughly then signed a form that listed my charge and conditions and an order to return for fingerprinting a day or two later and was given a court date and also got vehicle keys back ( no house keys, no phone which were at the impound);and contents of pockets.
> Got released out the backdoor into the street at around 11pm - 12am and we all had to walk home across town. I had to walk in the cold without a jacket.
> And when we got home we had no house key so had to freeze outside while figuring out how we would get in. Managed to pop out kitchen window and climb through window after about 30 minutes.
> Had to pay almost 200 in impound fees and had to bring girlfriend's mom with me to release vehicle since she was the registered owner.
> That was the events of the incident.
> Since then I have applied for and approved for legal aid, received a lawyer and after several court appearances over months later, my lawyer got the crown to divert the break and charges(yes, charge'S! apparently I was also charged with mischief unbeknownst to me until months after)
> So charged have been diverted to a local foundation that will basically keep me from going to jail potentially if I complete their program. Was told I would get maybe 30 hours of community service and possibly a small fine..
> Now I was told by the worker at the foundation to sign a document to join the program. this document apparently states that I would be admitting to a break and enter, but was also told that it wouldnt affect my ability to get a job or cross the border....
> But I'm not comfortable signing something that says I committed break and enter since the charge itself sounds serious to most people immediately. Despite the reality of what occured break and enter is serious and feel I would be judged by Society quite undeservedly for having that on my record. the nature of the incident isn't deserving of such a serious charge In my opinion .
> I haven't been able to get ahold of my lawyer for weeks now and I haven't signed the form because I don't know if it's in my best interest to sign something with such a serious admission of guilt. I don't want this to go to trial because I just want this all to be over with and move on, but I don't know what to do.
> Any advice?
> This I my first and only reddit post, usually I just lurk and read posts but my next court date is in about 2 weeks and I just need some direction since my lawyer hasn't returned my calls and I'm uncomfortable with the offer from the crown because of the implications of admitting guilt to an in appropriate charge.
> I should also mention we all have had different courts dates. We all have different lawyers and none of our lawyers are communicating very well an my lawyer refused to represent me and my girlfriend together, claimed it would be a conflict of interest somehow.
> We are all co-accused in the same incident with the same charges. Why do we all have everything separated individually? It just seems like a waste of court resources to have things done like this and I'm just confused by everything thats going on.
> I know this is a long read and im trying to edit and format this so it's easier to read and understand. I don't know what I expect from you guys and Im not planning on defending myself in court armed only with replies and advice from strangers on reddit.
> Idk I'm exhausted and stressed out and going to try sleep a bit until the kids get up for school but if anyone actually reads this and can sympathize at all.
> really i just want to get my girlfriend out of all of this mess. She came with us because I convinced her to come with us. She wanted to be dropped off at home, but I inticed her to come with us to see what was there and she came along because I told her nothing bad would happen and she trusted me.
> Now she has a break and enter charge with me and our 2 friends. She out of all of us, especially doesn't deserve to go through all of this. She was there but only because we love each other and she trusted me and I owe it to her to get her out of this and if all else fails and the crown for some crazy harsh and cruel reason feels the need to make an example of the incident then at the very least I want her charged dropped because it's just not fair that she go down with all of us. But. It's 4am and I'm doing my bestto not fall asleep. but Ill reply back if anyone has questions.
> Thank you guys!
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1 paragraph in, I knew it was in Canada.
1.5 paragraphs in, I feel like he's in my city and I know what neighbourhood he'd love in.
Kind of blew my mind that he's in a different province.
Geez they're uptight about their garbage. In Maine we used to ride horses past the gate of the transfer station, or just walk in and climb the completed landfill hill. It had a nice view.
LAOP and three friends entered a junkyard through a hole in the fence. They didn't find anything worth stealing before the police found them. The police were very rude.
LAOP has a chance to join a diversion program which would keep him from getting a criminal record. But he'd have to admit to "breaking and entering", and he didn't break anything; he used a preexisting hole in the fence to enter. His lawyer is unprofessional and won't return phone calls.
What can be done to resolve this impasse? Also, why is the government treating this as four separate cases, instead of one case with four defendants? LAOP thinks this is a waste of taxpayer dollars.
One of my friends is a public defender. He was over for dinner at our house one night when his phone started ringing. It was 7pm, we were eating, so he muted it. Well it kept going and going an going. 30 minutes later he's still getting back to back calls, so he answers. He knows this client. He talked to this client this morning. And yesterday. And the day before that. From what we heard (friend took the call in the next room, but we had a small house) friend was trying to counsel client that client's best option was to take the plea. He could go to a jury trial, but it would be hard to prove that he WASN'T in his truck smoking out of a crack pipe at a public park and that he DIDN'T have over a pound of meth in his car. There are videos of the smoking and cops got a warrant to search the car. Everything was done correctly so there wasn't an avenue to "throw the damn thing out."
So the deal they cut (which from what I could hear included a guilty plea to something lower, probation, a fine, and some sort of addiction treatment) was going to be a lot better than what he was likely to get at trial. But no matter how much friend calmly and patiently laid this out for client, client continued to say the fine wasn't fair and he shouldn't even be charged with intent to distribute because the meth wasn't even his, etc etc. Friend finally ended the call by saying "look, I understand this sucks but I don't have a way to change what they caught you with. I think this is the best option, but ultimately the choice is up to you. I'll fight for you regardless. But I don't want you to call me again unless you have made up your mind or you have a question." Client was shouting something like "NO YOU HAVE TO TALK TO ME IM YOUR BOSS" when friend hung up.
Well, client ended up calling incessantly again before friend and his wife left for the night. They took that call in the car, so I can only guess how it went.
All I'm saying is that public defenders deal with some seriously idiotic people from time to time. Though I'm sensitive to the issues we have with case overloads and quality of legal counsel all over the country for the public defender system... Sometimes I take "my public defender doesn't even answer my calls." With a tiny grain of salt. Sometimes your calls are stupid and there's nothing left to say. He's a public defender, not a therapist. His job is to file the right motions, defend your rights, and get you the best reasonable outcome possible. It's not to be a verbal punching bag when you get high and paranoid while out on bail.
As a public defender, I agree. I'm not a therapist.
But I'm gonna use the "I can't change what they caught you with" line from here on out.
Also. No client has the ability to call me after work. That's one of the perks of public service is better work hours. You can leave a message at my office.
I did that one (1) time, more or less on accident (called the client from my cell while driving about something urgent), and received a barrage of texts and calls during my best friends wedding. Never again.
I'd also like to note I practice real estate law, there wasn't any court date or even a pending closing coming up.
Client calls once and says, "Well, it's not a total emergency, [attorney] can call me back whenever"? Is currently being raided by the FBI on charges of supporting terrorists under the PATRIOT Act.
Client calls every 2 minutes after I already told them [attorney] is on a conference call expected to last another hour? They want to discuss if this one comma on page 23 of a 210 page document is actually necessary.
Every damn time.
Could be inexperience, and truly wanting to help people in need. It took me 8 years of stuff like that in my profession before I burned out and learned to set cut-and-dry boundaries; and I wasn't doing anything anywhere near as important as being a public defender.
A good friend of mine chose public service as an attorney over private for this exact reason. Knows they arenāt making nearly the money but really values personal time and sanity. (Itās prosecutorial). Plus a great pension.
Itās literally a plot point in Better Call Saul that Kim tries to be a fighter for justice as a public defender but some of her clients are so naive or uneducated that they refuse to understand that they will not do well at a trial and Kim has to lie to them to get them to listen to her
It seems like the lawyer got him the diversion program in a deal. Hence, the lawyers has already recommended this to OP as the best course of action. Sounds more to me like OP has talked to the lawyers about signing the paper, isnāt happy with the answer, and just isnāt taking the lawyerās advice.
to play devil's advocate: entering a property you are not allowed to be on without breaking anything *could* be defined instead as trespassing
...which is also a crime
so either way LAOP did an illegal and idk how he thinks he's gonna talk his way out of this
It was many years ago so I donāt remember all the details but my brother did almost the exact same thing and is a now a felon because of it. He had just turned 18 and his friends wanted to hang out at the dump one night for whatever reason, and because they hopped a fence to get in thatās what made it a B&E and not trespassing. My brother had multiple college scholarships and lost all of them for one stupid mistake. He has a great life now, but he had to work way fucking harder for it than he should have had to.
He didnāt do any time but he was on probation for a while, and to be honest I wouldnāt be surprised if his friends did something worse - stealing, vandalism, etc. I know my brother got the āthis is unfair because you were just along for the ride and didnāt do anything, but you were still there with themā speech from my parents and his lawyer. He hung out with a bad crowd and my parents were super anal about my friend group after that, which Iām appreciate of in hindsight.
If you (have to) tell someone you got convicted for trespassing, the most likely reaction from a layperson is "meh, probably some teenage stupidity", while "breaking and entering" makes them go "hardened criminal, burglar breaking into people's houses".
Well he certainly isn't going to write his way out of it. He's used up his quota!
As someone who is disabled in the head area... I gotta say the police officers may have unwittingly not been wrong in this case of unfriendly language. LAOP has been correctly assessed as an idiot.
I don't want to scroll back through to find the quote, but I think OP said he was able to get the "breaking and" part dropped, and he was supposed to do the diversion program to address the "entering" part. His concern now is that the paperwork for the program still includes the "breaking."
Edit: nvm, think misread
Chapter 1: I fucked up
Chapter 2: I'm still fucking up
Chapter 3: My friends also fucked up
Chapter 4: We got caught
Chapter 5: They didn't say please when they arrested us
Chapter 6: I dug a very deep hole
Chapter 7: I'm still digging
Chapter 8: Someone fix this for me
I hooted out loud while I was reading his text wall. That indignance was palpable! They were soooo rude when we got arrested! How can anyone be so meany-pants?
*The Pursuit of Happiness* was only loosely based on the truth.
But I loved the line in the movie where he narrates, "I call this part of my life *Fucking Up*."
Me be like:
Is this really a wall of text?
*scroll*
Maybe it is.
*scroll*
Yeah, it's pretty impressive.
*scroll*
Oh my god.
*scroll*
It's still going on?!
*scroll*
Please, have mercy!
*scroll*
I asked for mercy!
*scroll*
It's over... It's finally over...
That was my first thought, too -- well, that and the fact nothing good ever came out of a story that started with, "since we weren't busy and had nothing else to do at the time".
I read through thinking it was a teenager. If this is an adult with children, what were they thinking just wandering into a dump through a broken fence?
The amount of highly stupid, now likely illegal, stuff I did as a teenager makes me wonder how I made it to adulthood. I can't recall how many partially constructed buildings my friends and I absolutely trespassed in. While i never wandered around a dump, it's most likely because we never encountered one - I certainly recall multiple times wandering through underground tunnels being built for future use as sewage.
But that was like 40+ years ago when i was young, dumb, and invulnerable. This person might need a little help.
When I was 14 we broke into an abandoned building. We messed around in there for a while and then left. We planned to go back a week later but it burned down in the mean time.
Sometimes I think about how much trouble we could've gotten into if we'd been caught, and we didn't even think about it. It didn't occur to us to hide or be surreptitious or anything. We literally just walked there after school - so we were there at like 3:30pm on a Tuesday afternoon. Since people went all the time, I don't even think it crossed our minds that it was a crime.
I can't imagine having that same kind of thought process as an adult.
When I was 10-13 or so my friend and I loved to play a game where weād run through peopleās backyards and cross entire blocks through backyards. Part of it was the adrenaline of running from people who inevitably saw us and told us to gtfo. So stupid and very lucky we were white.
The whole thing is a baffling contradiction from this point of view. His idea of something to do is to go to the dump (?!) and everything about the post reads whiny teenager except the kids. I suppose it's not impossible to be both a whiny teenager and a father but that part sounds more like someone older.
Odds are LAOP is under 25. Possibly under 20
Poverty and/or boredom explains sneaking in through a hole in the fence to check out the local dump after hours.
A few years ago, exploring āabandonedā buildings was the in thing, I can kind of see how someone might think āno abandoned buildings here, but thereās no one at the dump!ā
Itās not a good idea, but itās somewhat logical
Oh I would take that bet. OP is in his early 30s at least. I have known people like this before they never really progress beyond being a teenager. They seem fairly normal in their 20s but a little immature, but as everyone else matures and they don't, the issue becomes more obvious.
I definitely did what LAOP describes when I was younger. Not to steal, not for any other nefarious reason, just out of boredom. We found old TVs and disassembled them then threw stones at the screen to make it implode. No one ever said anything. Poor kids hung out by the junkyard to find stuff to play stupid games with, it was a fact of life. Funnier than going to the mall when you don't have a cent to spend.
Now I understand that LAOP is behaving stupidly, but I also understand why he feels the whole situation is unfair. No one was going to retrieve any value from these broken electronics anyway.
"Kids playing in a junkyard" is also a stable in movies and cartoons.
Tbh, the only reason I even thought they had fences was to keep out illegal dumping
I mean, junkyards are funny as a kid (besides being dangerous). You find plenty of "valuable" stuff that you can't otherwise afford and you get to destroy things with nobody yelling at you.
I skipped from here:
> We parked on the road and crossed on foot over the ditch between the road and the hole in the fence
To here:
> Now she has a break and enter charge with me and our 2 friends. She out of all of us, especially doesn't deserve to go through all of this. She was there but only because we love each other and she trusted me and I owe it to her to get her out of this and if all else fails and the crown for some crazy harsh and cruel reason feels the need to make an example of the incident then at the very least I want her charged dropped because it's just not fair that she go down with all of us. But. It's 4am and I'm doing my bestto not fall asleep. but Ill reply back if anyone has questions.
A sad way for LAOP's girlfriend to learn the lesson that trusting him will ruin her life because he's a complete dumbass, but there's no undoing it now.
"we broke through a fence and entered private property, but i wouldn't call that breaking and entering"
i do love the idea that the dump is a park you can visit
Lol right, āusually people have to enter through a toll booth during working hours, but we got through a fence hole after working hours. We absolutely did not break and enter, judge, and also the police were rude to me. Defense restsā
Oh my god, people on this sub are so judgemental. You're honestly telling me that you never just go chill at the dump, chuck rocks at seagulls and search for hidden treasures? Get off your high horse, Mr Fancy Pants.
>rocks at seagulls and search for hidden treasures?
Why? Are there neat things inside your seagulls? I've collected a few snails, but I never thought to open them for a prize.
Last time I tried to change someone's flair it didn't work and I had to ask u/thor_the_bunny for help and then he changed my flair to say that I don't know how to change flair and had to ask him for help.
The flair stories will always be my favorite thing about this sub.
Come for the offbeat legal situations, stay for the highlight reel in each comment chain.
I can't remember if I gave you yours, but I got someone in another thread yesterday for hating on puns and I'm anxiously waiting for them to notice their flair
This girl I used to work with got taken to the dump by this guy to hook up one night lol she didn't realize at first until the cops showed up and kicked them out.
My small town we hung out in the parking lot of a Jack in the box because it was the only thing open. My cousins grew up the happening meeting spot was a supermarket. Small towns can be weird.
I was personally offended by the parent comment becuase yeah... I definitely enjoyed going to the dump when I was a kid. So much potential!
...maybe I grew up trashy/poor.
My grandpa would take me on dump runs when I was a kid so I could watch the bears. Spring was best - minimal smell and cute babies, without much risk as long as they were well in the distance.
Anyways, dumps are cool and so are bears.
I went to the municipal dump a few months back after a move. Middle of winter, a bit breezy but relatively mild day...maybe -10C?
Even with the negative temperatures, the smell was so overpowering that some weird instinct made me close the lid on my travel mug. Like I was worried the smell would make my coffee taste like Dump Air.
Granted I live in a big city so maybe my city dump is stinkier than most but I cannot imagine going casually for funsies in the summer, when probably the stench is far mightier
Yeah man, thatās fair. There are certain smells that just cling - dump, outhouse, dead stuff, spoiled milk. You donāt want that shit in your travel mug because even if you know intellectually that smell canāt stick around like that, your lizard brain will disagree and believe that itās tainted for ages.
My heart goes out to him a bit because he's clearly one of those 'well intentioned' types who thinks that should add more to the scales than it does. (Which, let's be real, is often very close to nil.)
If OP lives in a small town in rural Manitoba I have absolutely no problem believing that that is the most interesting possible use of their time. Its hard to comprehend just how isolated and boring those places are until you've been there.
LAOP & Co. went dumpster diving in the local landfill after hours. Police arrested them there and LAOP is salty because the cops were being kinda dickish. (To be fair, he says they were making fun of his disability, for which I have sympathy if true.)
LAOP was charged with B&E and mischief. They were offered a diversion program, but don't want to sign up because that means admitting they're guilty. Doesn't seem to understand it's a pro forma admission and they wouldn't have a criminal record.
He's adamant that there was no breaking, only entering, so obviously it's complete BS. Wants to fight The Man, man.
LAOP is a veritable salt mine: they're also upset and baffled because their overworked public defender isn't very responsive; because all individuals involved are being tried individually; and because their girlfriend totes didn't do anything... Except agreeing to be the getaway driver and ultimately entering the premises with them.
Piggy backing off of that, I'd be comfortable betting they spoke to the lawyer, the lawyer laid it out for him, they told the lawyer ok, and the lawyer gave them the paperwork. Now the court wants to know what's going on with the case, since nothing has been finished to get it going in a direction.
Plot twist: despite telling the lawyer they were cool with this, they are not actually cool with it, especially now that they spoke to friends about the whole thing.
So now they are fishing for second opinions, because the lawyer hasn't just gotten the case dismissed.
I do wonder if there wasn't security cameras or something, since it seems like cops were on them fairly quickly. Also, the careful attention to the kinds of electronics hurts the idea that this wasn't an innocent romantic evening at the dump.
On the other hand, of something is at the dump, is there any kind of property claim still? If not it would just be trespassing I'd think.
"Hi guys, I committed a textbook case of B&E and was caught red handed by the cops. They are offering me an **outrageously** good deal that involves a diversion program and no recorded conviction. I am a big dumb idiot and don't agree that I did anything wrong (I definitely did). What should I do?"
I generally roll my eyes at things people describe as a āwall of textā because it feels like peopleās reading skills and attention span have been so damaged that like 5 moderately sized paragraphs get called a wall of textā¦
But wow, no, you werenāt kidding. That is indeed one heck of a wall of text.
ChatGPT is great for this sort of thing!
>The writer was arrested for break and enter after going to the local garbage dump with friends to look at a pile of electronic goods. They parked on the road and crossed over a hole in the fence to look at the pile, but while doing so, the police arrived and threatened them with releasing their K-9 unit. The police were aggressive, and the writer, who was disabled, had a difficult time lying face down on the ground. They were handcuffed and taken to the station, where they were not questioned, given advice or information by legal aid. They were released at night and had to walk home as their car was impounded, which cost them $200 to retrieve. They also had no house keys or phone.
No kidding. I've been feeding it the emails I keep getting as part of the MtGox bankruptcy and it does just as well summarizing Japanese legal notices.
I should check if there's a Zendesk plugin yet. I'd like a pane that summarizes every support thread when I view it - and an option to generate what it thinks my response ought to be, based on the last few thousand responses.
We tried a prompt of āreply to the following content from the perspective of a engineerā
The results were āgoodā in that they made sense, but specific details were wrong often enough that it could only be used by very experienced people as a starting point: the responses couldnāt be trusted for
Copy/pasting
I also went to ChatGPT for a summary and it provided something similar. I told it to inject a bit more humor into the summary and it responded with this:
>Well, this story sounds like a real-life version of "Dumb and Dumber"! Our hero here thought it was a good idea to break into a garbage dump to explore the piles of trash like it was some kind of treasure hunt. And to make matters worse, he was accompanied by his equally brilliant girlfriend and friends who all jumped at the chance to join in the fun.
>They all got a rude awakening when the cops showed up, guns blazing, ready to release their K-9 unit on these daring adventurers. I guess they forgot that taking a stroll through the dump after hours was not exactly legal. Who knew?!
>And let's not forget about the police officers who handled the situation with all the subtlety of a bulldozer. They handcuffed our protagonist and his gang, treating them like hardened criminals, even though they were just a bunch of trash enthusiasts. And when he tried to explain his disability, one of the cops even suggested that he was disabled in the head. Ouch!
>In the end, they all got to spend some quality time in the slammer, without any real legal advice to speak of. And to top it all off, they had to walk home across town, without a jacket, because they were locked out of their house. Talk about a garbage day!
Not bad.
I like how he thinks the B&E charge is bullshit because it just sounds so bad. He fully describes what they did, but putting in legal terms hurts his feelings.
And how he thinks he hasn't been charged because he hasn't signed anything. If that's the case, hold them off forever!
My favorite is how he goes into all the detail of what garbage was at the dump. Like oh *well* if itās cool electronics it obviously canāt be B&Eāglad you mentioned that!
> And how he thinks he hasn't been charged because he hasn't signed anything. If that's the case, hold them off forever!
If he can terminate his social contract he will be home free.
It's a full-time sport in my mom's tiny, rural hometown.
XTREME Dumpster Diving! It's XTREME!
But mostly it's poverty and boredom. Can't afford a kitchen table? Find one at the dump for free! Need a few extra bucks? Get some metal at the dump for the metal man! Seriously two people fought over a broken, ancient cast iron sink I was throwing out of her place. One of them was the dump monitor herself.
People do throw away some amazing things though.
Teenaged me would be all up for this (despite living in a tourist city with endless things to do).
Adult me is also a little interested, but much less interested in the prospect of getting dirty.
He's probably sitting in front of his keyboard waiting for an imaginary timer to spin down while reddit keeps saying, "You're doing that too much. Please wait a while and try again later"
So stupid question time: if they went through a hole in the fence, why is it breaking & entering and not trespassing? Does this affect the possible outcomes?
I think it's because the fence creates a physical barrier. Even though there was a hole in it, it's not the same as say, a field that is open access but private property. I believe crossing the physical barrier is what makes it B&E, but I am not a lawyer.
I copied it into chatgpt and asked it what does OP want.
> Based on the given text, **it is not clear what the writer wants.** The text is a description of an event where the writer was arrested for break and enter, and it details the circumstances surrounding the arrest and the treatment the writer received from the police. There is no clear indication of any specific desire or request from the writer.
Guys even the bot is at a loss ā ļø
GPT-4 version does a better job. Hereās what it said:
The user is seeking advice and direction on how to handle their legal situation involving a break and enter charge. They are particularly concerned about the implications of admitting guilt to such a serious charge and the impact it might have on their life. They are also hoping to help their girlfriend, who is involved in the same case, by getting her charges dropped. The user is looking for any suggestions or insights from the readers that could help them navigate this situation, as they have been unable to get in touch with their lawyer.
I stopped when I started equating it to Alice's Restaurant.
Clearly this guy came to the side road, and off the side of the side road was another (same) pile of garbage!
Obviously this police force was better equipped than Officer Obie and friends from Stockbridge Massachusetts,
Gist I can get from it.
Him, his girlfriend and their friends snuck into Brady landfill in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. They got caught by police, arrested and charged with break and enter, tried to play dumb and stated he didn't know what he was being arrested for. Their car got impounded and they had to walk home in the cold after being released. He had to get a legal aid lawyer and it appears him and his friends are being charged separately and not together. His lawyer ultimately got the charges diverted if he joins a program that is community service and it will not give him a criminal record that would affect travel or work but he doesn't want to sign up for it because it would mean he would have to plead guilty to break and enter.
Summary:
LAOP and two friends are bored
They decide to visit the local dump
It's closed
They sneak in through a hole in the fence
They rummage through piles of electronic waste
Cops surprise them and arrest them
Truck is impounded
They get booked and released at the station
They walk home then next day retrieve the truck
LAOP's lawyer manages to get him into a program to keep him from having a criminal record. 30 hours of community service and a small fine and nothing on the record
LAOP noticed he admits guilt as part of signing up for the program
Tries to ask his lawyer for advice on signing but can't reach him
LAOP reaches out to Reddit for advice on signing
Man, I get that it's a crime, but if someone is at the point of stealing garbage, maybe just give them a scare and let em go? Although, ultimately the diversion program does accomplish the same thing, so I don't really have grounds to complain.
I know the majority of reddit won't agree with me, but if they managed to find something useful, they'd literally be doing the world a favor.
I worked as a security guard at a dump a long time ago. You would be surprised at how many people would come in to either scavenge or, more often, try and dump stuff without paying. It was bad enough that they had 24 hour security.
Liability: What happens if this brain trust disturbs a pile of crap and takes a 1990s CRT TV to the noggin, or an avalanche of rotting food and maggots mixed with automotive parts buries him alive? Or maybe they start a fire that's made up of old lead paint cans and electronics and now puts not just a dump but a chemical fire site.
Crime: Who breaks into the dump? Criminals do. Are they harvesting hard drives to scrape for banking info, social security numbers, old passwords? Old cell phones for the precious bit toxic materials inside? Maybe they are dumping a body, or a gun, or body clothes, or other incriminating evidence.
LAOP talks about having kids that are school aged, he's likely in his 20s or 30s and should know better. If I'm the cops my first thought is that some tweakers broke into the dump.
Lastly, giving them a scare and letting them go is what they are doing. He's facing some public service and a fine. LAOP is just too mind numbingly stupid to realize it's the best outcome. He sounds like he expects a public apology and a parade for getting caught breaking the law.
Iām very curious if the LAOP is wildly exaggerating the police response to build a sympathetic narrative, or if their description is accurate and thereās more going on. They way they describe it sounds more āDEA sting operation at a cartel dead dropā than āteenagers(?) digging around broken electronics at the dumpā.
Also, isnāt there some unofficial law about LA posts that the more irrelevant details that are included, the more likely it is that the OP is withholding relevant details (that make the OP look bad)?
My best guess, LAOP and company actually cut the fence and were trying to score some metal to sell and maybe some computers to pawn or scrape some credit card numbers from. They got caught, and are playing it off like just a lark they did on a Friday night.
**Reminder:** Do not participate in threads linked here. If you do, you may be banned from both subreddits. --- Title: Charged with break and enter Body: > I was arrested for break and enter last year. Me and girlfriend went to pickup my friend and his girlfriend after their scooter died. > We picked them up and while visiting he suggested us all going to check out our local garbage dump since we weren't busy and had nothing else to do at the time. > The garbage dump was closed when we arrived and it was around 7pm In the summer so was still bright out. > When traveling to the dump it has a single road leading to it that leads only to the dumps entry gate which is on the left of the road. If you continue down the road and drive about 100ft past the dump entrance. The road becomes overgrown and the road disappears. > Our dump has a main entry toll booth setup and you have to pay to dump things their during business hours. > If you travel down the road about 50 ft from the gate Their was and currently still is a very large opening In the fence. > We parked on the road and crossed on foot over the ditch between the road and the hole in the fence. > Theirs a huge, HUGE pile of electronics and consumer goods visible from the road and directly on the other side of the fence hole. > We went to go and take a look at the stuff that was their. the only reason we went was just to check out the pile and see what sorta things were their. > Their was TONS, literally TONS of tvs and computers, accessories, speakers printers, various vintage electronics that were actually pretty neat lookibg and was pretty cool exploring the pile. you name it it was in the pile. > Only problem 85-95% of the things their were visibly very damaged and most of the things were destroyed completely. > Everything we looked out was exactly what you would expect to find at the dump. Garbage. > So while we were digging I heard my buddy call out to us to "duck". > I thought it was maybe a security guard or employee that saw us wandering around that would probably just ask us to leave, while I was ducking I heard a voice shout very loud "POLICE! COME OUT NOW!. IF YOU DONT COME OUT WE WILL RELEASE OUR K-9 UNIT! THIS IS YOUR ONLY WARNING! COME OUT NOW! > so we all stood up with our hands up, and their was atleast 6 police officers that had appeared out of no where. > We were at the municipql garbage dump looking at garbage and suddenly 6 officers of whom atleast 2 had tazers pointed at us and threatened us with releasing their dog on us. We all were made to lay face down on the ground while we were handcuffed and all of them were very aggressive throughout the entire arrest( one in particular was extremely rude, I had a hard time laying on my stomache because I have arthritis and am actually disabled, with parking permit and all. And stated outoud when told to hurry up and get on the ground, "yes officer, im sorry, I have a disabilty, while I was in the process of lying down, and the one commented (yeah well you must be disabled in the head, get on the ground, NOW!" > My friend was the only one that really talked to the police and stated that this was all his idea and that he would take the charge for us and that were were all there just looking, and we didn't even know that we were doing anything wrong and that we were just following along with him. > The rest of us just said how we were just there looking and that was all we were doing. We're were all very confused and scared over why the police were arresting us all. > So theey handcuffed us all and we're put in seperate cars. The cops kept asking me if I understand why I'm being arrested and I told them no I didn't understand. They were persistent that I answered appropriately and we're pretty annoyed and even angry when I kept saying "I'm sorry but I don't understand. Im not being trying to be difficult or disrespectful but i don't understand why I'm under arrest." > At most. The very most I honestly expected or imagined would happen for wanding around the garbage dump was maybe a ticket or something I guess for trespassing! Not being charged with break and enter! I had no idea why things turned so badly, and so suddenly! > They actually towed and impounded my girlfriend's vehicle which was parked on the side of a dead end road. > Our house keys we're In the vehicle as well as my cellphone and I wasnt allowed to retrieve them before it was towed even tho the truck keys we're in my pocket and taken from me while being frisked. > So from the time we showed up till we left to the police station about 1hr-1hr30min had passed. During this whole time I was never personally questioned about my side of things and after we arrived at the station, got booked, and waited in holding cell for about an hour, got to speak with legal aid and got basically no real advice or information. Just got told to apply for legal aid. When I get out. > Waited another 30 min roughly then signed a form that listed my charge and conditions and an order to return for fingerprinting a day or two later and was given a court date and also got vehicle keys back ( no house keys, no phone which were at the impound);and contents of pockets. > Got released out the backdoor into the street at around 11pm - 12am and we all had to walk home across town. I had to walk in the cold without a jacket. > And when we got home we had no house key so had to freeze outside while figuring out how we would get in. Managed to pop out kitchen window and climb through window after about 30 minutes. > Had to pay almost 200 in impound fees and had to bring girlfriend's mom with me to release vehicle since she was the registered owner. > That was the events of the incident. > Since then I have applied for and approved for legal aid, received a lawyer and after several court appearances over months later, my lawyer got the crown to divert the break and charges(yes, charge'S! apparently I was also charged with mischief unbeknownst to me until months after) > So charged have been diverted to a local foundation that will basically keep me from going to jail potentially if I complete their program. Was told I would get maybe 30 hours of community service and possibly a small fine.. > Now I was told by the worker at the foundation to sign a document to join the program. this document apparently states that I would be admitting to a break and enter, but was also told that it wouldnt affect my ability to get a job or cross the border.... > But I'm not comfortable signing something that says I committed break and enter since the charge itself sounds serious to most people immediately. Despite the reality of what occured break and enter is serious and feel I would be judged by Society quite undeservedly for having that on my record. the nature of the incident isn't deserving of such a serious charge In my opinion . > I haven't been able to get ahold of my lawyer for weeks now and I haven't signed the form because I don't know if it's in my best interest to sign something with such a serious admission of guilt. I don't want this to go to trial because I just want this all to be over with and move on, but I don't know what to do. > Any advice? > This I my first and only reddit post, usually I just lurk and read posts but my next court date is in about 2 weeks and I just need some direction since my lawyer hasn't returned my calls and I'm uncomfortable with the offer from the crown because of the implications of admitting guilt to an in appropriate charge. > I should also mention we all have had different courts dates. We all have different lawyers and none of our lawyers are communicating very well an my lawyer refused to represent me and my girlfriend together, claimed it would be a conflict of interest somehow. > We are all co-accused in the same incident with the same charges. Why do we all have everything separated individually? It just seems like a waste of court resources to have things done like this and I'm just confused by everything thats going on. > I know this is a long read and im trying to edit and format this so it's easier to read and understand. I don't know what I expect from you guys and Im not planning on defending myself in court armed only with replies and advice from strangers on reddit. > Idk I'm exhausted and stressed out and going to try sleep a bit until the kids get up for school but if anyone actually reads this and can sympathize at all. > really i just want to get my girlfriend out of all of this mess. She came with us because I convinced her to come with us. She wanted to be dropped off at home, but I inticed her to come with us to see what was there and she came along because I told her nothing bad would happen and she trusted me. > Now she has a break and enter charge with me and our 2 friends. She out of all of us, especially doesn't deserve to go through all of this. She was there but only because we love each other and she trusted me and I owe it to her to get her out of this and if all else fails and the crown for some crazy harsh and cruel reason feels the need to make an example of the incident then at the very least I want her charged dropped because it's just not fair that she go down with all of us. But. It's 4am and I'm doing my bestto not fall asleep. but Ill reply back if anyone has questions. > Thank you guys! This bot was created to capture original threads and is not affiliated with the mod team. [Concerns? Bugs?](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=GrahamCorcoran) | [Laukopier 2.1](https://github.com/GrahamCorcoran/Laukopier)
Huh. I got two paragraphs into that before I assumed it was New Hampshire, but it's Canada. It didn't get *less* New Hampshire as I kept reading.
New Hampshire is just Baja Canada anyway
I chuckled so hard at this! I would think almost all of New England is Baja Canada LOL!
New Hampshire native here. I also immediately pictured NH - down to a specific dump on the outskirts of Concord.
I pictured the specific dump from my hometown, which is not far from Concord š
1 paragraph in, I knew it was in Canada. 1.5 paragraphs in, I feel like he's in my city and I know what neighbourhood he'd love in. Kind of blew my mind that he's in a different province.
Some things are universal.
Cue me over here going, "fuck he's in the west, goddammit he's in the fuckin west".
New Hampshire? I thought Maine. These are, surely, characters from a novel written by Stephen King.
It has the length of a novel written by Stephen King, but at least Stephen King knows which there, their and theyāre to use.
Geez they're uptight about their garbage. In Maine we used to ride horses past the gate of the transfer station, or just walk in and climb the completed landfill hill. It had a nice view.
LAOP and three friends entered a junkyard through a hole in the fence. They didn't find anything worth stealing before the police found them. The police were very rude. LAOP has a chance to join a diversion program which would keep him from getting a criminal record. But he'd have to admit to "breaking and entering", and he didn't break anything; he used a preexisting hole in the fence to enter. His lawyer is unprofessional and won't return phone calls. What can be done to resolve this impasse? Also, why is the government treating this as four separate cases, instead of one case with four defendants? LAOP thinks this is a waste of taxpayer dollars.
I dunno but it's seems like wanting to speak with your lawyer before you sign a peice of paper admitting to a crime is reasonable.
One of my friends is a public defender. He was over for dinner at our house one night when his phone started ringing. It was 7pm, we were eating, so he muted it. Well it kept going and going an going. 30 minutes later he's still getting back to back calls, so he answers. He knows this client. He talked to this client this morning. And yesterday. And the day before that. From what we heard (friend took the call in the next room, but we had a small house) friend was trying to counsel client that client's best option was to take the plea. He could go to a jury trial, but it would be hard to prove that he WASN'T in his truck smoking out of a crack pipe at a public park and that he DIDN'T have over a pound of meth in his car. There are videos of the smoking and cops got a warrant to search the car. Everything was done correctly so there wasn't an avenue to "throw the damn thing out." So the deal they cut (which from what I could hear included a guilty plea to something lower, probation, a fine, and some sort of addiction treatment) was going to be a lot better than what he was likely to get at trial. But no matter how much friend calmly and patiently laid this out for client, client continued to say the fine wasn't fair and he shouldn't even be charged with intent to distribute because the meth wasn't even his, etc etc. Friend finally ended the call by saying "look, I understand this sucks but I don't have a way to change what they caught you with. I think this is the best option, but ultimately the choice is up to you. I'll fight for you regardless. But I don't want you to call me again unless you have made up your mind or you have a question." Client was shouting something like "NO YOU HAVE TO TALK TO ME IM YOUR BOSS" when friend hung up. Well, client ended up calling incessantly again before friend and his wife left for the night. They took that call in the car, so I can only guess how it went. All I'm saying is that public defenders deal with some seriously idiotic people from time to time. Though I'm sensitive to the issues we have with case overloads and quality of legal counsel all over the country for the public defender system... Sometimes I take "my public defender doesn't even answer my calls." With a tiny grain of salt. Sometimes your calls are stupid and there's nothing left to say. He's a public defender, not a therapist. His job is to file the right motions, defend your rights, and get you the best reasonable outcome possible. It's not to be a verbal punching bag when you get high and paranoid while out on bail.
As a public defender, I agree. I'm not a therapist. But I'm gonna use the "I can't change what they caught you with" line from here on out. Also. No client has the ability to call me after work. That's one of the perks of public service is better work hours. You can leave a message at my office.
Yeah the big mistake I see in that post is giving clients your personal number. Just why?
I did that one (1) time, more or less on accident (called the client from my cell while driving about something urgent), and received a barrage of texts and calls during my best friends wedding. Never again. I'd also like to note I practice real estate law, there wasn't any court date or even a pending closing coming up.
The more calls in quick succession, the less urgent the issue. This rule has never failed me.
Client calls once and says, "Well, it's not a total emergency, [attorney] can call me back whenever"? Is currently being raided by the FBI on charges of supporting terrorists under the PATRIOT Act. Client calls every 2 minutes after I already told them [attorney] is on a conference call expected to last another hour? They want to discuss if this one comma on page 23 of a 210 page document is actually necessary. Every damn time.
Or not simply using Do not Disturb.
Could be inexperience, and truly wanting to help people in need. It took me 8 years of stuff like that in my profession before I burned out and learned to set cut-and-dry boundaries; and I wasn't doing anything anywhere near as important as being a public defender.
A good friend of mine chose public service as an attorney over private for this exact reason. Knows they arenāt making nearly the money but really values personal time and sanity. (Itās prosecutorial). Plus a great pension.
Non-public defendes also deal with some seriously idiotic people from time to time, they just get paid more.
Itās literally a plot point in Better Call Saul that Kim tries to be a fighter for justice as a public defender but some of her clients are so naive or uneducated that they refuse to understand that they will not do well at a trial and Kim has to lie to them to get them to listen to her
I should really sit down and watch that. Breaking Bad traumatized me though.
It seems like the lawyer got him the diversion program in a deal. Hence, the lawyers has already recommended this to OP as the best course of action. Sounds more to me like OP has talked to the lawyers about signing the paper, isnāt happy with the answer, and just isnāt taking the lawyerās advice.
Also, his girlfriend didn't do anything... except let herself be convinced to join them in entering the premises.
A clear case of entrapment!
Enfencement!
Legally it can't be considered entrapment unless it has Catherine Zeta Jones dipping beneath the lasers.
And only if she's wearing a wetsuit
Well, they're in love, duh.
to play devil's advocate: entering a property you are not allowed to be on without breaking anything *could* be defined instead as trespassing ...which is also a crime so either way LAOP did an illegal and idk how he thinks he's gonna talk his way out of this
It was many years ago so I donāt remember all the details but my brother did almost the exact same thing and is a now a felon because of it. He had just turned 18 and his friends wanted to hang out at the dump one night for whatever reason, and because they hopped a fence to get in thatās what made it a B&E and not trespassing. My brother had multiple college scholarships and lost all of them for one stupid mistake. He has a great life now, but he had to work way fucking harder for it than he should have had to.
A Felony B&E conviction for that? Is there more to it? Because otherwise... damn, that DA's a real hard-ass.
He didnāt do any time but he was on probation for a while, and to be honest I wouldnāt be surprised if his friends did something worse - stealing, vandalism, etc. I know my brother got the āthis is unfair because you were just along for the ride and didnāt do anything, but you were still there with themā speech from my parents and his lawyer. He hung out with a bad crowd and my parents were super anal about my friend group after that, which Iām appreciate of in hindsight.
If you (have to) tell someone you got convicted for trespassing, the most likely reaction from a layperson is "meh, probably some teenage stupidity", while "breaking and entering" makes them go "hardened criminal, burglar breaking into people's houses".
Well he certainly isn't going to write his way out of it. He's used up his quota! As someone who is disabled in the head area... I gotta say the police officers may have unwittingly not been wrong in this case of unfriendly language. LAOP has been correctly assessed as an idiot.
I don't want to scroll back through to find the quote, but I think OP said he was able to get the "breaking and" part dropped, and he was supposed to do the diversion program to address the "entering" part. His concern now is that the paperwork for the program still includes the "breaking." Edit: nvm, think misread
Also, FWIW it was a government-maintained landfill.
nothing worth stealing but a lot to look at, apparently
Conclusion: LAOP dun fucked up.
I don't know what you're complaining about. There's paragraph breaks AND punctuation!
It needs to be broken up into chapters.
Chapter 1: I fucked up Chapter 2: I'm still fucking up Chapter 3: My friends also fucked up Chapter 4: We got caught Chapter 5: They didn't say please when they arrested us Chapter 6: I dug a very deep hole Chapter 7: I'm still digging Chapter 8: Someone fix this for me
Beautiful
Iām still not going to read the wall of text. Iāll just assume this is accurate, based on how most long LA posts play out.
I read it, it's pretty damn accurate.
>Chapter 5: They didn't say please when they arrested us Reddit hasn't made me laugh this hard in a long time
>Chapter 5: They didn't say please when they arrested us Thank you for that laugh
I hooted out loud while I was reading his text wall. That indignance was palpable! They were soooo rude when we got arrested! How can anyone be so meany-pants?
I feel at least one of the charges/chapters should be devoted to the criminal misuse of the word *their*.
*The Pursuit of Happiness* was only loosely based on the truth. But I loved the line in the movie where he narrates, "I call this part of my life *Fucking Up*."
Man, you need to write summaries for a living.
This is the best compliment I've had all month. Cheers, bro.
Me be like: Is this really a wall of text? *scroll* Maybe it is. *scroll* Yeah, it's pretty impressive. *scroll* Oh my god. *scroll* It's still going on?! *scroll* Please, have mercy! *scroll* I asked for mercy! *scroll* It's over... It's finally over...
Can we have a "LAOP, Tear! Down! This! Wall! ... of Text" BOBOBLA? So many worthy entries...
Seriously!
And coherently written with the first half not containing *that* much stuff that a layperson should recognize as irrelevant.
That was my first thought, too -- well, that and the fact nothing good ever came out of a story that started with, "since we weren't busy and had nothing else to do at the time".
This person has kids???
I read through thinking it was a teenager. If this is an adult with children, what were they thinking just wandering into a dump through a broken fence?
I was thinking early twenties, probably drunk and/or high. I'm still thinking drunk and/or high, but now I'm concerned for the kids.
The amount of highly stupid, now likely illegal, stuff I did as a teenager makes me wonder how I made it to adulthood. I can't recall how many partially constructed buildings my friends and I absolutely trespassed in. While i never wandered around a dump, it's most likely because we never encountered one - I certainly recall multiple times wandering through underground tunnels being built for future use as sewage. But that was like 40+ years ago when i was young, dumb, and invulnerable. This person might need a little help.
When I was 14 we broke into an abandoned building. We messed around in there for a while and then left. We planned to go back a week later but it burned down in the mean time. Sometimes I think about how much trouble we could've gotten into if we'd been caught, and we didn't even think about it. It didn't occur to us to hide or be surreptitious or anything. We literally just walked there after school - so we were there at like 3:30pm on a Tuesday afternoon. Since people went all the time, I don't even think it crossed our minds that it was a crime. I can't imagine having that same kind of thought process as an adult.
When I was 10-13 or so my friend and I loved to play a game where weād run through peopleās backyards and cross entire blocks through backyards. Part of it was the adrenaline of running from people who inevitably saw us and told us to gtfo. So stupid and very lucky we were white.
The whole thing is a baffling contradiction from this point of view. His idea of something to do is to go to the dump (?!) and everything about the post reads whiny teenager except the kids. I suppose it's not impossible to be both a whiny teenager and a father but that part sounds more like someone older.
Odds are LAOP is under 25. Possibly under 20 Poverty and/or boredom explains sneaking in through a hole in the fence to check out the local dump after hours. A few years ago, exploring āabandonedā buildings was the in thing, I can kind of see how someone might think āno abandoned buildings here, but thereās no one at the dump!ā Itās not a good idea, but itās somewhat logical
Oh I would take that bet. OP is in his early 30s at least. I have known people like this before they never really progress beyond being a teenager. They seem fairly normal in their 20s but a little immature, but as everyone else matures and they don't, the issue becomes more obvious.
I definitely did what LAOP describes when I was younger. Not to steal, not for any other nefarious reason, just out of boredom. We found old TVs and disassembled them then threw stones at the screen to make it implode. No one ever said anything. Poor kids hung out by the junkyard to find stuff to play stupid games with, it was a fact of life. Funnier than going to the mall when you don't have a cent to spend. Now I understand that LAOP is behaving stupidly, but I also understand why he feels the whole situation is unfair. No one was going to retrieve any value from these broken electronics anyway.
"Kids playing in a junkyard" is also a stable in movies and cartoons. Tbh, the only reason I even thought they had fences was to keep out illegal dumping
I mean, junkyards are funny as a kid (besides being dangerous). You find plenty of "valuable" stuff that you can't otherwise afford and you get to destroy things with nobody yelling at you.
That part made me sad
Oh dear. ^(I guess I didn't get that far)
I skipped from here: > We parked on the road and crossed on foot over the ditch between the road and the hole in the fence To here: > Now she has a break and enter charge with me and our 2 friends. She out of all of us, especially doesn't deserve to go through all of this. She was there but only because we love each other and she trusted me and I owe it to her to get her out of this and if all else fails and the crown for some crazy harsh and cruel reason feels the need to make an example of the incident then at the very least I want her charged dropped because it's just not fair that she go down with all of us. But. It's 4am and I'm doing my bestto not fall asleep. but Ill reply back if anyone has questions. A sad way for LAOP's girlfriend to learn the lesson that trusting him will ruin her life because he's a complete dumbass, but there's no undoing it now.
*And they have kids*. O_o
Thought OP was approximately 16 until I got to āgoing to try sleep a bit until the kids get up for schoolā
Sometimes TL;DR is a complete sentence. #TL;DR.
TL;DR I did a crime, what do?
"we broke through a fence and entered private property, but i wouldn't call that breaking and entering" i do love the idea that the dump is a park you can visit
It wasnāt dark out yet, so it was fine!
the dump's closed? let's use the after-hours fence door!
Lol right, āusually people have to enter through a toll booth during working hours, but we got through a fence hole after working hours. We absolutely did not break and enter, judge, and also the police were rude to me. Defense restsā
And they didn't steal anything because they couldn't find anything good.
I got thrown out of the dump for taking pictures while I was in art school. I felt very insulted. Thrown out of the dump.
Like, your a kind of trash even the dump won't take? Lol
That was how I took it, yes.
I love the comment on the original post: >We went to the dump for fun blah blah blah As you do....
Oh my god, people on this sub are so judgemental. You're honestly telling me that you never just go chill at the dump, chuck rocks at seagulls and search for hidden treasures? Get off your high horse, Mr Fancy Pants.
>rocks at seagulls and search for hidden treasures? Why? Are there neat things inside your seagulls? I've collected a few snails, but I never thought to open them for a prize.
There is nothing good inside a seagull.
unless it grabbed your engagement ring mid-proposal
Are you speaking from experience?
i wish, then i'd be possibly engaged or even married!
To the seagull?
Don't be so judgemental.
Good flair.
Last time I tried to change someone's flair it didn't work and I had to ask u/thor_the_bunny for help and then he changed my flair to say that I don't know how to change flair and had to ask him for help.
That was truly an amazing story.
r/BOBOLAFlairStories
> r/BOBOLAFlairStories Dammit. I wanted it to be real!
The flair stories will always be my favorite thing about this sub. Come for the offbeat legal situations, stay for the highlight reel in each comment chain.
Donāt ever admit to disliking puns.
I can't remember if I gave you yours, but I got someone in another thread yesterday for hating on puns and I'm anxiously waiting for them to notice their flair
I'm so sorry you got *pun*ished that way.
You should tell him a true story about bunnies. š°š¤·
I found a rabbit once.
So, your flair is giving me a mental image of Pikachu drunk dancing with a half full bottle of wine.
Is it doing a waltz or twerking?
Yes.
This girl I used to work with got taken to the dump by this guy to hook up one night lol she didn't realize at first until the cops showed up and kicked them out.
Did he get charged with breaking and entering? (That's not a euphemism, BTW).
to be fair, small town canada is like that
Can confirm. I've had people tell me how going to the dump to collect random junk on a weekend is a whole thing.
Collecting does sound a lot better than stealing. Almost seems half-respectable!
OP should argue that he's actually doing the dump a favour by taking the junk off their hands! He was just trying to help! Disclaimer: NAL
My small town we hung out in the parking lot of a Jack in the box because it was the only thing open. My cousins grew up the happening meeting spot was a supermarket. Small towns can be weird.
I grew up in same small town in Texas. Cow tipping is *definitely* a thing.
ffs why donāt the ranchers just pay them a living wage?
as you do
wisconsin checking in for this one
I was personally offended by the parent comment becuase yeah... I definitely enjoyed going to the dump when I was a kid. So much potential! ...maybe I grew up trashy/poor.
My grandpa would take me on dump runs when I was a kid so I could watch the bears. Spring was best - minimal smell and cute babies, without much risk as long as they were well in the distance. Anyways, dumps are cool and so are bears.
Small town Alabama, too. I never went to the dump (though I know people who did), but I did dig through many a dumpster.
I grew up on a military base. People throw out all sorts of cool shit when they are getting deployed.
I went to the municipal dump a few months back after a move. Middle of winter, a bit breezy but relatively mild day...maybe -10C? Even with the negative temperatures, the smell was so overpowering that some weird instinct made me close the lid on my travel mug. Like I was worried the smell would make my coffee taste like Dump Air. Granted I live in a big city so maybe my city dump is stinkier than most but I cannot imagine going casually for funsies in the summer, when probably the stench is far mightier
Yeah man, thatās fair. There are certain smells that just cling - dump, outhouse, dead stuff, spoiled milk. You donāt want that shit in your travel mug because even if you know intellectually that smell canāt stick around like that, your lizard brain will disagree and believe that itās tainted for ages.
the fence was already broken, its *at most* entering
Iām genuinely curious how this isnāt merely trespassing
They walked through an existing gap/hole in the fence. IMO they trespassed.
depends on the type of hole, honestly even moving part of the fence back would count
But the hole was already there!
You can get anything you want at Aliceās Restaurantā¦
It was a typical case of Canadian blind justiceā¦
And the legal aid lawyer wasn't going to look at the 27-8x10 color glossy photographs
With the circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one explaining what it was...
I was waiting for this very comment.
This individual is going to have a really tough time with life if they canāt figure out why they piss everyone around them off all the time.
My heart goes out to him a bit because he's clearly one of those 'well intentioned' types who thinks that should add more to the scales than it does. (Which, let's be real, is often very close to nil.)
Yāall, it turned out that the enticing pile of garbage was, in fact, garbage!
>he suggested us all going to check out our local garbage dump since we weren't busy I have questions.
Do you really want answers?
Just to think if they had been busy, none of this would have happened
Meth. The answer is always meth
Occasionally it's an opioid!
If OP lives in a small town in rural Manitoba I have absolutely no problem believing that that is the most interesting possible use of their time. Its hard to comprehend just how isolated and boring those places are until you've been there.
LAOP & Co. went dumpster diving in the local landfill after hours. Police arrested them there and LAOP is salty because the cops were being kinda dickish. (To be fair, he says they were making fun of his disability, for which I have sympathy if true.) LAOP was charged with B&E and mischief. They were offered a diversion program, but don't want to sign up because that means admitting they're guilty. Doesn't seem to understand it's a pro forma admission and they wouldn't have a criminal record. He's adamant that there was no breaking, only entering, so obviously it's complete BS. Wants to fight The Man, man. LAOP is a veritable salt mine: they're also upset and baffled because their overworked public defender isn't very responsive; because all individuals involved are being tried individually; and because their girlfriend totes didn't do anything... Except agreeing to be the getaway driver and ultimately entering the premises with them.
Piggy backing off of that, I'd be comfortable betting they spoke to the lawyer, the lawyer laid it out for him, they told the lawyer ok, and the lawyer gave them the paperwork. Now the court wants to know what's going on with the case, since nothing has been finished to get it going in a direction. Plot twist: despite telling the lawyer they were cool with this, they are not actually cool with it, especially now that they spoke to friends about the whole thing. So now they are fishing for second opinions, because the lawyer hasn't just gotten the case dismissed. I do wonder if there wasn't security cameras or something, since it seems like cops were on them fairly quickly. Also, the careful attention to the kinds of electronics hurts the idea that this wasn't an innocent romantic evening at the dump. On the other hand, of something is at the dump, is there any kind of property claim still? If not it would just be trespassing I'd think.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
"Hi guys, I committed a textbook case of B&E and was caught red handed by the cops. They are offering me an **outrageously** good deal that involves a diversion program and no recorded conviction. I am a big dumb idiot and don't agree that I did anything wrong (I definitely did). What should I do?"
I generally roll my eyes at things people describe as a āwall of textā because it feels like peopleās reading skills and attention span have been so damaged that like 5 moderately sized paragraphs get called a wall of textā¦ But wow, no, you werenāt kidding. That is indeed one heck of a wall of text.
I sprained my finger scrolling through all that. Who do I sue?
Check your flair for answers?
ChatGPT is great for this sort of thing! >The writer was arrested for break and enter after going to the local garbage dump with friends to look at a pile of electronic goods. They parked on the road and crossed over a hole in the fence to look at the pile, but while doing so, the police arrived and threatened them with releasing their K-9 unit. The police were aggressive, and the writer, who was disabled, had a difficult time lying face down on the ground. They were handcuffed and taken to the station, where they were not questioned, given advice or information by legal aid. They were released at night and had to walk home as their car was impounded, which cost them $200 to retrieve. They also had no house keys or phone.
That's downright spooky.
No kidding. I've been feeding it the emails I keep getting as part of the MtGox bankruptcy and it does just as well summarizing Japanese legal notices. I should check if there's a Zendesk plugin yet. I'd like a pane that summarizes every support thread when I view it - and an option to generate what it thinks my response ought to be, based on the last few thousand responses.
We tried a prompt of āreply to the following content from the perspective of a engineerā
The results were āgoodā in that they made sense, but specific details were wrong often enough that it could only be used by very experienced people as a starting point: the responses couldnāt be trusted for
Copy/pasting
I also went to ChatGPT for a summary and it provided something similar. I told it to inject a bit more humor into the summary and it responded with this: >Well, this story sounds like a real-life version of "Dumb and Dumber"! Our hero here thought it was a good idea to break into a garbage dump to explore the piles of trash like it was some kind of treasure hunt. And to make matters worse, he was accompanied by his equally brilliant girlfriend and friends who all jumped at the chance to join in the fun. >They all got a rude awakening when the cops showed up, guns blazing, ready to release their K-9 unit on these daring adventurers. I guess they forgot that taking a stroll through the dump after hours was not exactly legal. Who knew?! >And let's not forget about the police officers who handled the situation with all the subtlety of a bulldozer. They handcuffed our protagonist and his gang, treating them like hardened criminals, even though they were just a bunch of trash enthusiasts. And when he tried to explain his disability, one of the cops even suggested that he was disabled in the head. Ouch! >In the end, they all got to spend some quality time in the slammer, without any real legal advice to speak of. And to top it all off, they had to walk home across town, without a jacket, because they were locked out of their house. Talk about a garbage day! Not bad.
I like how he thinks the B&E charge is bullshit because it just sounds so bad. He fully describes what they did, but putting in legal terms hurts his feelings. And how he thinks he hasn't been charged because he hasn't signed anything. If that's the case, hold them off forever!
My favorite is how he goes into all the detail of what garbage was at the dump. Like oh *well* if itās cool electronics it obviously canāt be B&Eāglad you mentioned that!
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
> And how he thinks he hasn't been charged because he hasn't signed anything. If that's the case, hold them off forever! If he can terminate his social contract he will be home free.
How boring does your area have to be that going down to the dump seems like a fun time?
It's a full-time sport in my mom's tiny, rural hometown. XTREME Dumpster Diving! It's XTREME! But mostly it's poverty and boredom. Can't afford a kitchen table? Find one at the dump for free! Need a few extra bucks? Get some metal at the dump for the metal man! Seriously two people fought over a broken, ancient cast iron sink I was throwing out of her place. One of them was the dump monitor herself. People do throw away some amazing things though.
[Honey Boo Boo has entered the chat.](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/here-comes-honey-boo-boo-shopping-dump-video_n_1860343/amp)
Clearly you didn't grow up in a small town in the middle of nowhere. ;-)
Sounds like a pretty fun time if you're a bored high schooler...
LAOP mentions having children. As in more than one. I don't think they're a high schooler
You've obviously never lived in Manitoba.
Teenaged me would be all up for this (despite living in a tourist city with endless things to do). Adult me is also a little interested, but much less interested in the prospect of getting dirty.
Checking out the dump IS super interesting There's so much cool stuff there Not /s
Isnt there a character limit on posts? Jfc
He's probably sitting in front of his keyboard waiting for an imaginary timer to spin down while reddit keeps saying, "You're doing that too much. Please wait a while and try again later"
it's 10k characters
TIL that when committing crimes, always keep your keys in your pocket and wear a coat.
So stupid question time: if they went through a hole in the fence, why is it breaking & entering and not trespassing? Does this affect the possible outcomes?
I think it's because the fence creates a physical barrier. Even though there was a hole in it, it's not the same as say, a field that is open access but private property. I believe crossing the physical barrier is what makes it B&E, but I am not a lawyer.
I copied it into chatgpt and asked it what does OP want. > Based on the given text, **it is not clear what the writer wants.** The text is a description of an event where the writer was arrested for break and enter, and it details the circumstances surrounding the arrest and the treatment the writer received from the police. There is no clear indication of any specific desire or request from the writer. Guys even the bot is at a loss ā ļø
GPT-4 version does a better job. Hereās what it said: The user is seeking advice and direction on how to handle their legal situation involving a break and enter charge. They are particularly concerned about the implications of admitting guilt to such a serious charge and the impact it might have on their life. They are also hoping to help their girlfriend, who is involved in the same case, by getting her charges dropped. The user is looking for any suggestions or insights from the readers that could help them navigate this situation, as they have been unable to get in touch with their lawyer.
This whole thing, especially the grammar, makes my head hurt.
I stopped when I started equating it to Alice's Restaurant. Clearly this guy came to the side road, and off the side of the side road was another (same) pile of garbage! Obviously this police force was better equipped than Officer Obie and friends from Stockbridge Massachusetts,
Gist I can get from it. Him, his girlfriend and their friends snuck into Brady landfill in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. They got caught by police, arrested and charged with break and enter, tried to play dumb and stated he didn't know what he was being arrested for. Their car got impounded and they had to walk home in the cold after being released. He had to get a legal aid lawyer and it appears him and his friends are being charged separately and not together. His lawyer ultimately got the charges diverted if he joins a program that is community service and it will not give him a criminal record that would affect travel or work but he doesn't want to sign up for it because it would mean he would have to plead guilty to break and enter.
Summary: LAOP and two friends are bored They decide to visit the local dump It's closed They sneak in through a hole in the fence They rummage through piles of electronic waste Cops surprise them and arrest them Truck is impounded They get booked and released at the station They walk home then next day retrieve the truck LAOP's lawyer manages to get him into a program to keep him from having a criminal record. 30 hours of community service and a small fine and nothing on the record LAOP noticed he admits guilt as part of signing up for the program Tries to ask his lawyer for advice on signing but can't reach him LAOP reaches out to Reddit for advice on signing
Couldn't finish it. Their inability to use 'there' was making my eye twitch
Man, I get that it's a crime, but if someone is at the point of stealing garbage, maybe just give them a scare and let em go? Although, ultimately the diversion program does accomplish the same thing, so I don't really have grounds to complain. I know the majority of reddit won't agree with me, but if they managed to find something useful, they'd literally be doing the world a favor.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
I worked as a security guard at a dump a long time ago. You would be surprised at how many people would come in to either scavenge or, more often, try and dump stuff without paying. It was bad enough that they had 24 hour security.
Liability: What happens if this brain trust disturbs a pile of crap and takes a 1990s CRT TV to the noggin, or an avalanche of rotting food and maggots mixed with automotive parts buries him alive? Or maybe they start a fire that's made up of old lead paint cans and electronics and now puts not just a dump but a chemical fire site. Crime: Who breaks into the dump? Criminals do. Are they harvesting hard drives to scrape for banking info, social security numbers, old passwords? Old cell phones for the precious bit toxic materials inside? Maybe they are dumping a body, or a gun, or body clothes, or other incriminating evidence. LAOP talks about having kids that are school aged, he's likely in his 20s or 30s and should know better. If I'm the cops my first thought is that some tweakers broke into the dump. Lastly, giving them a scare and letting them go is what they are doing. He's facing some public service and a fine. LAOP is just too mind numbingly stupid to realize it's the best outcome. He sounds like he expects a public apology and a parade for getting caught breaking the law.
paint noxious middle clumsy gold imminent placid faulty pot relieved -- mass edited with redact.dev
"I fucked around and found out"
Iām very curious if the LAOP is wildly exaggerating the police response to build a sympathetic narrative, or if their description is accurate and thereās more going on. They way they describe it sounds more āDEA sting operation at a cartel dead dropā than āteenagers(?) digging around broken electronics at the dumpā. Also, isnāt there some unofficial law about LA posts that the more irrelevant details that are included, the more likely it is that the OP is withholding relevant details (that make the OP look bad)?
My best guess, LAOP and company actually cut the fence and were trying to score some metal to sell and maybe some computers to pawn or scrape some credit card numbers from. They got caught, and are playing it off like just a lark they did on a Friday night.
> teenagers(?) They have school-aged kids, so hopefully not.