I have written a few articles on dumpster diving before, and since then some trial experts have given me feedback. One of his stories was so interesting that I got his permission to include his experience in this article.

My articles are my opinions and not legal advice. I am a sentencing broker and I am not a lawyer. If you ever need legal advice or a strategy to use, contact an attorney.

The retrieval expert had run into a roadblock in his post-trial investigations. They had a particularly cunning and experienced legal debtor who hid his assets well. The executor of the judgment had accumulated quite a bit of information about the judgment debtor, however, he had no clues about his available assets. This is the story of your first garbage search experience, also known as a dumpster dive.

The judgment debtor lived in a house that he could be renting for cash, about ten miles from the judgment executor’s office. The executor first used Google Maps, then took a tour, to see what he could find out by taking a quick tour of the judgment debtor’s home.

The sentence enforcer Googled “city name garbage collection” and found the local garbage / recycling company where the judgment debtor lived. The garbage company’s website did not show the scheduled days or the areas where the garbage was collected. So, he called the garbage company and said that he would be moving to his city soon and that he wanted to get some information.

The executor of the judgment told the garbage clerk the street and block where his judgment debtor lived, as the place to which he would soon move. Then he asked them what day, or day of the week, would their garbage containers have to be on the street to be picked up? He received their reply (Wednesday morning), thanked them and said goodbye.

The following Wednesday morning, around 4:30 a.m. M., The executor of the trial and his friend began their adventure. The judge’s friend drove a small pickup truck to the judgment debtor’s home. As predicted, the garbage and recycling cans were in front of his house, on the edge of the street.

They stopped by the garbage cans and stopped. His plan was to let the engine idle, and the executor would quickly grab the garbage bags from the judgment debtor’s garbage cans. The reality was that although there were a few neatly tied garbage bags, most of the garbage was loose, wet, sticky, and smelly. So much for a quick and easy dip into a garbage container.

The enforcer had brought gloves, however they did not bring any other equipment, not even spare plastic bags. The executor moved the few sticky bags from the back of the truck. Then he picked up the entire trash can, emptied all the trash in the back of the truck, and got a grease stain on his pants.

Next to the trash can was a separate recycling bin, filled mostly with junk mail. The executor of the judgment quickly threw the papers in the back of his truck; just as a light went on in a neighbor’s house and a dog started barking. The executioner’s pulse quickened, he jumped back into the truck and they drove away, just when they thought they heard a man yelling at them. They didn’t wait to hear what the screaming was about. Fortunately, they were gone long before anyone could see their license plate.

As they got closer to the freeway, they noticed some of the papers in the recycling bin flying out of the back of their truck, so they decided to take the back roads home at a slower speed. They decided to be much better prepared next time or never to do this again. When they got home, they spread their “winnings” on a plastic tarp and waited for dawn.

Using tweezers and gloves, they sifted the judgment debtor’s trash. As they expected, most of their trash was trash, and all of the judgment debtor’s recycling was trash. However, they found a gift in the trash because they found a partially broken bank statement and a voided check that was half broken.

That provided enough information to later do a successful bank collection, which paid for the entire judgment. So even though that stain never came off his pants, and it was scary, messy, and time consuming (especially for cleaning), the payoff from the trial made the dumpster worth diving into.