fly tipping
From the BBC (via BoingBoing):
Mystery shoe saga stumps couple
Pairs of shoes are being left in mysterious circumstances outside a remote farmhouse in Lincolnshire.
Jason and Claire Foster, who live near Market Rasen, do not know who is doing it or why they have left as many as four pairs of shoes at one time.
The family have video footage, which shows an elderly couple driving by in a green vehicle depositing the shoes.
Mrs Foster said that although it was scary at first, she was rather hoping some of the pairs might fit.
Okay, this was weird, and about the entire content of the Boing Boing link/article. But the last half of the article is what really caught my eye:
East Lindsey District Council are investigating the incident as a case of fly tipping.
“Sometimes it’s odd ones, sometimes it’s a couple of pairs. But they’re of all shapes and sizes. There has even been pairs of roller blades,” a council environment official said.
“There must have been more than 30 pairs so far – it’s been going on for months.”
He said the maximum penalty for a first offence of fly-tipping was £20,000, but it depended on its severity.
Fly tipping — now there’s a usage you don’t see much in around these parts. It turns out that fly-tipping is what we would call “illegal dumping”. It’s a great little phrase: “fly” in this case is related to “flee”, and “tipping” is what dump trucks and wheelbarrows do. Maybe we’d call it “dump-and-dash”, or “chuck-and-run”. Not quite as English, though, is it?
Market Rasen (where the fly-tipping is taking place) is only about 15 miles from where I live and you’d be amazed how much coverage this story has been getting on the local news! The best bit is that they have video footage of the dumpers driving past at speed and chucking the shoes out of their car window. Personally, it seems to me like a stroke of comedic genius… However, I’m a bit surprised that they are referring to it as fly-tipping – that phrase tends to be reserved for the act of dumping old carpet or tyres down country lanes.
Actually, I think I know why the elderly couple is leaving the shoes. Rotary International is doing a project this year called “Shoes for Orphaned Souls” or something like that. It’s a shoe drive for third world kids. Anyway, the elderly couple probably just got the address wrong for the drop-off point.