Rubbish prank stays a mystery

Residents of Croft Tce in Huntly East put out their rubbish after getting bogus flyers. Photo / Greg Bowker

A phantom rubbish collector has left Huntly down in the dumps.

The shadowy figure who flitted around the north Waikato town posting flyers for a bogus inorganic rubbish collection looks likely to get away with it, despite costing the Waikato District Council thousands of dollars.

The prankster posted the flyers, which sported a council logo and the signature of one "C.H. Burrows", in the Croft Tce area of Huntly East last weekend.

Billed as "a good chance to clean up round the house", the would-be collection was to target "old fridges, stoves, car parts, corrugated iron, timber, carpet, etc etc".

The leaflets roused suspicions with a few Croft Tce residents, but they were too canny to look a gift-horse garbage-collection in the mouth.

Coalminer Abraham Lloyd told the Weekend Herald the annual inorganic rubbish collection normally came around in November, but after a few minutes, "we just thought, 'nah, it's early'."

So he went ahead and gathered up a few unwanted odds and ends, including plastic drums, children's toys and "a busted swing set".

Mr Lloyd watched as "little piles of rubbish" began to gather outside neighbouring properties.

At the same time, a monster heap was accumulating at the top of the street.

That pile "filled the corner completely", another resident - who wished to remain anonymous - told the Herald.

He, too, was a little suspicious of the collection flyers, as "we have never had one like this before".

But he and his wife decided to put out a few bits and pieces after watching their neighbour cleaning house.

"I looked across the road and thought, 'Oh, Brian's put a toilet out'."

In the end, the council - initially reluctant to clean up the mess - was forced to do the collection itself. About four tonnes of rubbish was collected, at a predicted cost of about $5000.

Yesterday, council chief executive Gavin Ion could only speculate at the motives of the mysterious C.H. Burrows. It is possible "Burrows" was looking to get rid of a pile of his own rubbish, or perhaps seeking sellable scrap metal.

There are no records of a council employee by that name, and every "Burrows" in the region has been contacted - to no avail.

In the meantime, as Croft Tce residents have a quiet chuckle over the matter, it has been referred to the police.

Sergeant Blair Donaldson of Huntly said he did not learn of the garbage prank until watching television on Wednesday.

He was not aware of any formal complaint, and with a busy weekend of policing approaching, probably had other things on his mind.

"In the scheme of things, it's a wee bit down the priorities."