A man in Northern Ireland said he spent months dealing with an unknown neighbor who kept using his wheelie bin without permission, according to a post he shared on the r/pettyrevenge subreddit. He said the situation started small, with an extra bag appearing here and there, but eventually escalated to the point where the bin was being kept at the other end of his alley entirely. The man, who goes by the username darklinkuk on Reddit, said the problem became particularly difficult after he had a newborn at home. With dirty diapers piling up inside the house and no access to his own bin, he said he waited patiently for collection day to take action. According to his post, collection in his area happens at around 9 a.m. He said he woke up at 6 a.m. on collection day, recovered his bin after the neighbor had left it out the night before, removed every single bag that did not belong to him, placed them on the sidewalk at the end of the alley where bins are lined up for pickup, filled his bin with his own rubbish, and went about his day. The city’s waste investigation system turned a bin dispute into a potential fine of up to £2,500 When he walked home later that afternoon, darklinkuk said he was pleasantly surprised by what he found. According to his post, all the bags he had left on the sidewalk had been repackaged by the city in bright blue bags printed with the local council’s logo and what appeared to be the words “litter investigation evidence.” He said he believed the city may have found a letter or some other identifying document inside the bags, which could have led to a fine or at least a warning being issued to whoever owned the rubbish. He did not confirm this directly, but noted that after the incident, his bin was never touched again, not even for a single can. In the UK, fines for fly-tipping, the illegal dumping of waste, can reportedly range from £400 to £2,500, according to darklinkuk’s post. He suggested the neighbor could have simply bought their own bin for around £25 instead. “They chose violence and I responded,” he wrote. In a separate case, a California garbage man got revenge on a customer who failed to pay their bill, though the situation took an unexpected turn when police got involved. Steal my wheelie bin?…it's going to cost you. byu/darklinkuk inpettyrevenge When asked in the comments whether removing someone else’s rubbish and leaving it on the sidewalk could itself be considered fly-tipping, darklinkuk acknowledged that it likely was. “Yes, it was 100% fly tipping, I don’t deny that,” he said. He added, however, that he did it three hours before the scheduled collection and that none of the bags contained anything belonging to him, making it difficult to trace back to him. He also said he never found out exactly who was responsible, only that it was likely one of about five houses in the general area where his bin kept reappearing. He said the neighbor never approached him about it, and he has since moved to a new home. In the comments, darklinkuk said bin theft is apparently common in his area and that he had gone to significant lengths to mark and identify his bin over time. “Dude over this whole endeavour I had it stickered, spray painted neon and cut notches on the handles so I could identify it when it was painted over,” he wrote. He said he is now at a new house with a new bin and plans to use number stickers, spray paint, and potentially 3D-printed markers fixed with strong adhesive to protect it. Stories like his are a reminder that ignoring neighbor warnings before moving in can sometimes lead to situations far worse than a stolen bin. He also noted that in Northern Ireland, there is no per-weight charge for rubbish collection, but said having waste pile up inside the home, especially with a newborn, was frustrating enough on its own. “I save those for porch pirates,” he joked in one comment, referring to what he claimed to do with used diapers. The post received more than 3,200 upvotes on Reddit, with many users praising the outcome. One commenter wrote, “Not all heroes wear capes. Instead, they save up dirty diapers,” a comment that received over 1,100 upvotes of its own.