Posted on 08/13/2019 10:52:35 AM PDT by Red Badger
HENRICO COUNTY, Virginia -- Residents living in a Virginia neighborhood woke up to find free televisions on their doorsteps. It sounds like a great gift until you see the older box sets left at the homes.
"He's committed to his trade," said homeowner, Jim Brooksbank.
No need to adjust that dial. Doorbell surveillance cameras captured the man with a TV set over his head, laying an older set down on someone's front porch and just walking off.
"He wants to be known as the TV Santa Claus. I don't know," Brooksbank told WTVR-TV.
The bizarre discovery happened Sunday morning in Henrico's Hampshire neighborhood. Outdated boxes were found at more than 50 homes.
"We got an old tube-style TV, 13 inch," said Brooksbank.
"I thought my son brought it home, but apparently not. They had way too much time on their hands if they had all these TV's and spread them all over the neighborhood," said homeowner, Michael Kroll.
Henrico Police are tuned into the situation. They have security camera video from multiple neighbors, but think it's only a prank targeting no one in particular.
"At most this seems to be more an inconvenience to the community," said one officer.
Officers and county workers spent Sunday morning picking up the old units and hauling them away.
"The police did a great job of coming up and collecting them all," said Brooksbank.
This is the second time the TV set mystery has played out in Glen Allen. The same thing happened in a different neighborhood last August.
"I think it's just a prank. Some college students who are just bored," said Kroll.
"It's summer, and people are getting ready to go back to school. Maybe TV man was just ready to strike and put a little humor in our lives," added Brooksbank.
In the absence of knowing the brains inside the box, these homeowners are left only to guess what it all means.
According to Henrico Police, the only real crime committed was illegal dumping.
The 6th Teletubby?
Definitely weird......................
I know a guy who used to ask for old (thick) TV’s. Said there were parts he could use. Never had one to give him, or I’d have asked what parts he used.
Amateur radio guys, HAMS, used parts from old TVs for their junk boxes Amps and their home-brew radios................
Our landfill charges $10 buck to dump old tvs. My neighbor might find atv on his porch.
It might just be Ralph Northampton in costume again. Stay tuned for TV watching seminars.
I am guessing that Virginia, like Pennsylvania, passed a law banning these from landfills.
Which is fine, until everybody who signs-up to be part of a recycling program figures out that it’s a money loser and drops out.
It has become near-impossible to recycle an old TV here, with the predictable result that people are leaving them in parking lots, on the porches of vacant homes, and chucking them into rivers.
Reminds me of an old Jeff Foxworthy joke.
If you have a working TV on top of a non working TV....
.... You might be a redneck.
Worthless analog TVs loaded with broken vacuum tubes you can’t replace.
A vast wasteland ...
More power to him.
Before we went widescreen/flat TVs we had a Samsung 32” old-style. Great picture until it kicked the bucket. However, if you wanted to move that thing, bring your hand truck and a couple of amigos ‘cause that sucker was heavy.
We put and old cabinet TV set, 32”, out to the curb and someone came along and busted the tube, just to be a a-hole.............
Has anyone tried donating an old TV to a thrift center/Salvation Army/Goodwill?
Don’t bother. They won’t taken them.
The only “vacuum tubes” in TVs for several decades (until they were totally phased out) have been the CRT itself.
I know local auction houses won’t take tube tvs. Goodwill won’t take them either. I suspect someone that is buying out storage units perhaps?
True story. 8>)
Yup.
Goodwill was one of the original recycling partners.
They quickly found themselves up to their neck on old
TV’s at every store. That was eating up all their labor
costs so they dropped out.
Best solution I have heard of:
Pack your old TV in an Amazon carton, leave it on your front porch and wait for a Porch Pirate to come and steal it.
My preferred solution:
Get together with all of your friends and dump your old electronics at your local State Representative’s office. You voted for his law, you deal with the consequences.
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