I FOUND A BAG OF GOLD!!!

 

I wanted to clean the exit ramp from I-76 west to Arlington.  It's always a mess.  So I parked my car, and started picking up trash in the parking lot, around the fence, and I saw an incredibly stinky mess in this big field.  

Obviously, homeless people have slept here.  There were blankets, clothing and pillows with dirt and grass growing through them.  

I didn't take a picture, because I didn't think I'd clean it.  I thought the pillows would be really heavy and moldy.  They weren't.  They were super gross, but not heavy.  I was able to throw them over the fence.  One blanket got caught.  I went around to the other side and threw everything in the dumpster.

It doesn't look good, but at least the trash is gone.

So I kept picking up trash in this big field . . . 1,200 pieces, before I even headed over to the exit ramp. 

Something pretty funny happened.  A woman stopped at the stop sign and said, "Think you can get that trailer in your bucket?"

I told her, "I wish I could.  It's quite an eyesore!"

Last year, at least the doors were on it.  Now it's completely trashed, and even homeless people won't sleep in it.  Ick!

When I got to the other side of the field, there was another fence, and I started cleaning the trash trapped there, and I happened to look up and saw a bag caught on the fence.  

I'm so busy looking down, I don't think to look up for trash!

So I found an opening in the fence and went around to the other side, and was able to get the bag off the fence.  Inside it were brand new packs of BIC lighters.  Too bad I have absolutely no use for those.

I found more trash, and tripped over a little bag full of gold!

Well, not so much gold as copper.  The bag was full of change.

So I'm thinking somebody was running from someone, and they tried to climb over the 7 or 8 foot fence, and their bag got caught, and they dropped their bag of change. 

It's bizarre.  I've found all kinds of trash, but never a bag of lighters and a bag of coins!

I headed over to the exit ramp, and it was incredibly clean.  Somebody has been working on this.  The area beside the street was messy, so I cleaned all that up.  

A man pulled up in a white car and thanked me.  He said he cleans the other end.  I told him I met him last year.  That was pretty cool.

I picked up 1,804 pieces of trash tonight, and even though my timer didn't go off, I didn't want to be in this neighborhood in the dark, so I headed home.

As I was driving to the exit ramp, I saw with my own eyes, a woman ripping through garbage bags here at Burkhardt & Lover's Lane.  I knew homeless people pulled trash bags out of dumpsters and carried them away to go through them.  That's why there's big piles of garbage every where.  This isn't "litter."  It's a "big mess."

As I was driving home, I stopped at the light and took a picture of the mess she made.  Good grief!  I'll go back tomorrow and pick all that up. (Not real excited about doing that, but that's what I do.)

A

I washed and disinfected all the coins.  Wow!  It's not a lot of money, but I never found a bag of gold before!

It was quite an evening.