People dumping their litter on my front steps.

Yeah, we live in a row of terraced houses on one of our town's high streets - a mixture of residential & businesses (it's the oldest part of this town, more or less).  All with small front gardens with short stone walls around but for the gate.  Owing to a dearth of rubbish bins along the street (until you get further down street near Morrisons area) & general carelessness - our front gardens become the receptacles for takeaway containers, sweet & crisp wrappers, cig butts, gum wrappers, etc...

It's pretty quiet most nights except Fridays & Saturdays when the pubs let out (it's a suburban town, not Leeds city centre).  And we have regular PCSO foot patrols.

We had a great laugh yesterday walking down the street, as we noticed the neighbour at the far end of our line of 8 terraced homes (on that particular group of 4 houses, they have gardens that are sunken below street level) has put a trampoline in their garden, which takes up pretty much the whole of the tiny garden - with only enough room (more or less) for them to get from the street to their door.  I said to DH - oh look!  Maybe we should put a trampoline like that in our garden - it would take up all our garden space & voilà - no more gardening for us!

He said - oh yeah, so then we'll get the drunks bouncing on our trampoline after hours & then hammering on our bedroom windows while they bounce up!  

We have had a traffic cone chucked in the garden after someone first tried it on for a hat (we saw them out the window & they saw us), people stomping up & down our ginnel - we have the end terrace, sometimes knocking & then running away...  We've had people urinate in the ginnel before (not often thank goodness!) - more than ever, that's when I wanted to be up in the loft with a bucket or kettle of water to chuck out the window - but how would you time such a thing?  

Ah, life in a small town...  

ETA:  A week or two ago in the night, I heard a group of people walking down the street & chatting about the neighbourhood in general.  Well it must have been one of the neighbours around us somewhere, because when they passed our house, I heard one say - Americans are living there.  I think DH would have been simply thrilled to hear that his nationality has now been cancelled out by mine.  

It's not just a town/city issue, either.  We live in the middle of nowhere, and the council doesn't do a regular large item collection, etc., but they'll deliver a skip for the township to use whenever someone requests it.

When they bring the one for our township, it goes at the corner near our house.  Within 2 days, it's brim-full of bin bags left by campers, and so people just leave stuff all around it.  And then the seagulls come...

It's very, very gross.

People are such disgusting pigs. I saw a woman just throw a plastic cup on the ground on my way to work today. I was livid and really felt like telling her off. I cannot stand inconsiderate slobs.

LMAO about your dad Smashley! That's hilarious Sorry you're having to deal with this nuisance! I agree with the general idea od using a non working camera and posting a sign on the front door.. See if your neighbor will post a sign as well. There's power in numbers.. Best of luck!

Smashley, depend on where abouts you dad lives I work as an alarm engineer and nothing beats a real camera and a sign which is required by Law.

Smashley, depend on where abouts you dad lives I work as an alarm engineer and nothing beats a real camera and a sign which is required by Law.

He lives in Northern Cali- He's ex military police, i'm sure he knows what the laws are, he just chooses to do it "the fun way"    Frankly he needs to figure it out though, they built a Social Security office next to his land where he keeps all this crap- now people steal from him practically every night.  He has built little alarms with trip wires and what not... God the more I talk about him the more nutso he sounds... I might need to have a talk with him!

He lives in Northern Cali- He's ex military police, i'm sure he knows what the laws are, he just chooses to do it "the fun way"    Frankly he needs to figure it out though, they built a Social Security office next to his land where he keeps all this crap- now people steal from him practically every night.  He has built little alarms with trip wires and what not... God the more I talk about him the more nutso he sounds... I might need to have a talk with him!

Lol actually sounds quite fun I think he has inspired me to build my own little trip wire and bells thing going on

I love the dad in camo, sounds like something I would do. 

At our house in the US we lived on the corner lot and every day the kiddies getting out of school would cut across the corner of our lawn.  Annoying, but not as bad as the lazy girl who would cut in front of the house and clear across my flower beds.  I am talking like 20 feet of walking in flowers. 

I don't know if she thought she was a princess or just that stupid but one day I sat right inside the window and when she was maybe 2 feet from me I said "Stop stepping on me, it hurts!"  She looked like she about passed out!  LOL  She dropped her backpack and ran, so I proceeded to deliver it to her house and tell her mother that if I caught her doing it again she was going to pay be back for all my tramped flowers by being my gardener for a season.

I hope that I taught her a lesson! 

Just to chime in with my own litter is horrible story... Last summer in Iceland we drove up the crazy and death defying road to get up close to a glacier. We drove for miles and miles through barren scrub and rock along the mountain road. We couldn't go all the way, because the road was wiped out, so we parked and got out to admire what we could see. It was amazing. Then I looked down and saw cigarette butts. And then an empty bottle, and then a wrapper... Horrible. Littering by glaciers is like kicking baby seals or something.

I smoke, and I have not thrown a butt on the ground in about twenty years. If there's no trash can, it goes in my pocket or something until I can throw it away.

My only suggestion for dealing with litter in your neighborhood is a clip board. You would be amazed at how intimidating a crazy lady with a clip board is. I scare away the illegal ice cream trucks. You don't have to actually write anything down or report anything, you just stand there with your clip board and look intense and crazy. Works like a champ.