Homes tricked by hoax rubbish collection

The streets of the Waikato town of Huntly are piled with rubbish after residents found themselves victims of a hoax.

The householders received a letter telling them to leave any junk kerbside for a mid-winter inorganic rubbish collection from August 15, with collection starting August 25.

The flier, bearing a letterhead which the hoaxers apparently took from the Waikato District Council website, said that the collection presented "a good chance to clean up around the house".

"All inorganic forms of rubbish will be collected, old fridges, stoves, car parts, corrugated iron, timber, carpet etc," it said.

However, the council said this week it was unaware of the lleter and has ordered the residents to take their trash back into their houses.

Huntly resident Olivia Jones was not amused by the caper.

"Our family spent all day clearing out our junk," she told the Waikato Times.

"What a stupid prank."

Council general manager for water and facilities Richard Banks told Radio New Zealand two theories for the duplicitous dumping were being "bandied about".

"One is that it's being done as a hoax. The other is someone is being entrepreneurial - trying to get people to put out material they could get some value from, before the normal collection service is provided."

- NZPA