It’s funny when things like this happen. It was back in May when I noticed a record player on the sidewalk outside this apartment building. I knew the instant I saw it that it used to be mine. I left it for trash years earlier after the thing stopped working. I could have tried to fix it but I never liked the thing anyway. I did not buy this but I guess I asked for it as a Christmas gift. It was a Sharper Image brand all-in-one radio with LP and CD players. It took me a while to realize that the turntable was either too slow or too fast (can’t remember which) so any record I played was not-so-slightly off pitch. Someone handier than I could have fixed that, no doubt, but even if that was not a problem I just never cared for this thing. I found it to be cumbersome and cheaply made, as became standard for Sharper Image products.
My Old Turntable Reappeared
I guess what happened was someone, presumably from this building, found it outside when I attempted to leave it for trash and they either tried to fix it or maybe even succeeded in doing so. No way to tell just from looking at it, but it’s interesting to see how objects change hands via the trash stand. and remain in active consideration for years.
My Old Turntable Reappeared
It is actually illegal for anyone but Department of Sanitation to pick up curbside trash. Once anything like this hits the curb it becomes the property of Sanitation, and police occasionally bust people for taking stuff even when they had no idea it was illegal to do so. It sounds petty but there could be genuine health and hygiene issues in play when carrying off garbage such as mattresses, with bedbugs the most obvious potentiality. Who knows, all kinds of nasties could lurk inside something as seemingly innocuous as this turntable. Whoever had this in their possession for those years might have stuffed it with locusts and bubonic plague stinkbombs.
Legal or not it is no surprise that someone would have grabbed this from the curb when I left it out for trash. What’s strange is how they kept it for several years, during which time I assume it never worked. It’s as if the person who took it either never tried to turn it on in all those years or else felt like they had something to prove in not throwing it away promptly. Maybe they feared that when taking it back out for trash they would be seen by the person who originally threw it away. Just hold onto it for several years and the chances increase that the person who left it for trash will have moved out or forgotten about it.
When I cleared out the storage room I found, for the first time I can remember, a post card that was mistakenly delivered to me, probably 10 or more years ago. It was not a personal card. It looked like an automatically generated thing informing someone that their order for some kind of custom-made statuette had been received and would be processed. The person to whom this card was addressed still lives in this building. We don’t talk much but next time I see him I’m going to ask if he got his card, because I left it downstairs by the mailboxes. It’s common enough for people to leave misdirected mail pieces like that but I hoped this person would get a laugh out of the fact that his mail from 10+ years ago finally turned up.
