Two weeks ago, I was the victim of a major crime: Someone stole my 90-gallon, waste-management-company-issued plastic garbage receptacle.
At first, I was incredulous. Who would steal a garbage can? I couldn’t get over it. Then, after I talked to the trash company and found out new ones cost $50, I was furious. Luckily, they told me, if I filed a police report I could get a replacement can for free. And then they attempted to reassure me by telling me something that got my brain percolating: “This happens all the time.”
Really? This particular thing – someone strolling onto another person’s property and wheeling away a garbage can full of garbage, plus a nest of very cranky yellowjackets – happens a lot? This means that the kind of people who would do such a thing are walking amongst us. As are the kind of people who, like me, can’t believe such a thing happens. And both kinds of people could thus relate to, and appreciate, a story about a stolen garbage can.
Well, at that point I was no longer incredulous. I was fascinated. Because I realized, anytime you ask yourself, “Who would DO that?” in reference to a crime, you’ve probably got an excellent idea for a story. So many great books and movies have been based on the answer to questions like this.
“Who would break into a house and pee on someone else’s rug?” becomes the movie The Big Lebowski. (Actually, this movie’s plot answers a lot of questions, like “who would purposely cut off his girlfriend’s pinky toe?” and “who would take a Pomeranian bowling?”)
“Who would steal a dead body?” Well, that could be a lot of movies, from Men in Black to Weekend at Bernie’s II. Reason for its popularity as a plot device is, it’s a most fascinating question.
“Who would burglarize his own house?” Remember that awesome 80s comedy, A Fish Called Wanda?
Okay then, to get back to my question, who DOES steal a garbage can? Easiest answer is probably, “someone looking for unshredded documents with social security numbers on them,” as a friend of mine pointed out. Eh, maybe. A little too James Bond for Northwest Indiana, but certainly possible.
More likely, it’s someone who needed a garbage can because something happened to theirs and they don’t want to shell out $50 for a new one. Like, maybe their garbage can was stolen by their psycho neighbor, and they’re afraid to report it or ask for it back because of how insane he went the time they complained about him burning mattresses in his backyard.
Or maybe it’s a husband who accidentally ran his garbage can over with the pickup truck, and he’d rather steal someone else’s than deal with her eye-rolling rage.
Or it could be a kid who destroyed his family’s garbage can playing with cherry bombs while his folks were away, and this was his “last strike” before getting shipped off to military school.
The possibilities for stories…are endless.
So, as miffed as I am at the garbage can thieves, they did give me a valuable insight into story development – pay attention anytime you utter the statement, “What kind of person would DO something like that?” He or she could be the star of your next story….
