Posted on 03/13/2008 5:48:50 PM PDT by World_Events
It's not yet 3 a.m. Juana Rivas grabs her shopping cart and steps off the curb into the dark.She shields herself from the cold with a sweat shirt and jacket, along with a pink hat and gloves she bought at the 99-cent store. Only a barking dog interrupts the silence.
Rivas arrives at the first house, lifts the trash can lid and shines her flashlight inside. Nothing. "No hay. No hay," she says in Spanish.
She peers into another trash can. Nothing. She zigzags back and forth across the street, stopping at each house to search for aluminum cans, glass bottles, plastic containers, anything she can exchange for money at the local recycling center. She reaches inside and shakes the contents, listening for the telltale clink of a beer bottle or the hollow tap of a milk carton. Nothing.
She starts to feel anxious. Her husband and four children are depending on her. The $2,300 rent check on their Pasadena home is due in one week. She already asked for an extension on the gas. The cable and the phone have been disconnected.
Rivas knows what people think, that she digs through her neighbors' trash to make money for drugs or alcohol. She knows what people call her -- scavenger, digger, thief.
"There are people who look at me like, 'You aren't worth anything. You aren't anybody,' " she said.
For 13 years, she says, she has collected cans and bottles "to pay my rent, my bills. I do it out of necessity."
She has looked for more stable jobs, including cleaning offices at night. But nowadays, more companies are asking for immigration papers, papers she doesn't have.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
I thought this practice was called recycling or freecycling, and to be encouraged by liberals.
Some sob story. She’s stealing $20 to $25 thousand a year from the city’s recycling profit. When she gets hurt from stealing, she goes to the ER for free medical service. Boo-frickity-hoo
Shes been here for 13 years and can’t speach english?
Wonder why she can’t find a job?
She's here illegally...pays $2300 per month for rent...doesn't say how much money she makes and expects someone else to pay it.
She must be a DemocRAT!
“nowadays, more companies are asking for immigration papers, papers she doesn’t have.”
She’s looking for work in the wrong damn country. I’ve had it with these whiney liberals attempting to invoke sympathy for the “plight” of “undocumented workers”.
She’s got a rent payment of $2,300 a month? How on earth has her illegal family been sustaining that, pray tell?
Has uncle Juan back home in Mexico been paying it, or have they been sucking dollars out of our tax base and taking jobs away from American citizens?
Never mind. I think we know that answer.
Thank God the LA Times is about to go under. They promote the sell-out of our country at the most fundamental levels, and then wonder why the circulation is continuously falling. Morons...
If they think they’re pulling the majority’s heartstrings with this treasonous piece of clap-trap, they’re as out of their ever lovin minds as we’ve suspected.
Bold emphasis mine.
For obvious reasons.
And I'm surprised that the libtard wannabe journalist that penned this tripe would include that in the story.
Uhh...$2300 a month for rent? Cable and phone? 3 men working? Cryng a freakin’ river! Get the F out of my country!
Her rent is more than I net in a month and she’s fracking COMPLAINING? GO BACK TO MEXICO DUMBASS.
Interesting.
One wonders exactly what that amount buys per month.
My mortgage payment on 6 bedrooms, three baths, living room, den, dining and game room and two car carport, sitting on 40 acres is just a little more than a third of that amount.
'Course, I'm in Alabama and she's in Californicate, but still...
Nothing pissed me off more, while living in Los Angeles, than scavengers going through the dumpsters and recycle bins at all hours of the night. They make so much noise going through it all then make even more noise dragging it off. I quit recycling a few weeks ago because the recycle pickup guys started leaving me notes that everything that I always recycled in the past are “not recyclable items” - plastic water bottles, etc. Now everything just goes in the trash.
“My mortgage payment on 6 bedrooms, three baths, living room, den, dining and game room and two car carport, sitting on 40 acres is just a little more than a third of that amount.”
Braggart! LOL
One of the reasons we moved the family from Cali to Texas was the affordability of the real estate. Folks back home still can’t believe what we got for the money.
The other reason was we wanted to move back to the US.
A non citizen here illegally down and out in Pasadena.
I'm trying to feel something but it just not happening.
Nope, not happening.
Very true.
But it also depends on just what part of Tejas one is purchasing real estate.
When I was stationed at Fort Hood many centuries ago, a decent three bedroom, two bath would run around $650.00 a month.
Of course, interest rates (thanks to that damn peanut farmer we had in the White House at that time) were close to 10 percent or higher.
But if I still had that particular home now, it would probably be a gold mine.
Wish I had kept it and just rented it out.
Probably could have got $4000.00 a month, if I could have just found an illegal immigrant with a penchant for recycling.
True, I think those in Berkley that do this are considered conquering hero's. LOL
It's worse that that. Juana's been in the country illegally since 1982. (She must've missed the '86 amnesty.)
Two of her four chldren are also here illegally.
She uses a stolen shopping cart so she can steal to make a living.
She makes between $20,000 and $25,000 a year stealing recyclables (tax free money).
MediCal pays for her healthcare.
And then she claims:
"We are working honorably. We aren't robbing. The police should let us work."
How do you say “Move to someplace cheaper, dumbass” in Spanish?
I'll go with "dumpster diver".
She has looked for more stable jobs, including cleaning offices at night. But nowadays, more companies are asking for immigration papers, papers she doesn't have.
Ah, well.. that "criminal status" might be a problem.
Her husband and four children are depending on her.
And what exactly is dear hubby doing?
They must be very rich to afford four children.
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