illegal donation bins popping up everywhere

Yeah, the jerks removed the one on Park Place, between Classon and Franklin. It was ticketed for removal. Then they put a new, non-ticketed one its place. Argh.

Now I'm noticing these things everywhere. However, the ones I tend to see coincidentally (or not) seem to be located just beyond the reaches of public domain on private property. Coming back from the post office on Empire this afternoon, I noticed the laundromat at the corner of Empire and Rogers has one. It even has the logo of the laundromat on it. (Why do I suspect that the motivations to have the collection box there are not strictly charitable?)

My favored bin (under the shuttle tracks on Prospect) disappeared for a day but now a sibling has taken its place.  It is not the exact same bin but a very similar one, and has been placed several feet to the east of where the old one was.  There is clearly new paint on the side where it was likely marked for removal previously at a different location..

This company has no qualms about thumbing their nose at the current city laws in place...

Also, I saw one of the blue bins in Williamsburg when I happened to be there yesterday.  Maybe looking for some vintage pieces

I wonder if appropriating one of these bins would be viewed as theft.  I could see repurposing them as a secure storage container, especially with the help of a welder and a torch, both of which I have.

Eastbloc, if something is left on the sidewalk along the street, then isn't it actually considered trash? So, if that is the case, altering, moving, destroying "trash" wouldn't be considered grafitti, theft, or vandalism, right?

As evidenced by all of the boxes labeled "free stuff" one sees on local sidewalks, people hate to throw away things that once had value.

The clothing bins harness these feelings, and make it convenient for the donor.

Exploit.

This is beyond ridiculous! Anyone have a property facing one of these bins? Because if we could set up a camera facing the bin perhaps we could catch the truck delivering them? Maybe that would peek the authorities interest?

They paint over the collection signs and numbers painted on the sign. Perhaps take a pic of 'em to prove they have not moved? the painting, plus new stickers, seems to be their trick.

Maybe a simple way to render them unusable, like superglue? I'd be willing to volunteer a weekend going around to shut them down

Yes, the bins are clearly well used. As I look east and west of us, I see fewer bins.

I speculate that is because they fill up less quickly in those areas, and therefore less profitable.

Until we effectively increase the costs of doing business here, or decrease the return, this will be a game of whack a mole:

Believe me...I despise these bins and would like to see them disappear and have called sanitation about them several times. But my fear is that if we seal them closed, folks who have come to leave their "donations" in the bins will of course be unable to open them, and therefore will just dump their bags of stuff on the sidewalk next to the bins, and we'll be stuck with a bigger, unruly mess of piles of clothes and shoes on all of our street corners for days or weeks....Not sure this will serve our purposes and may actually just cause a diffrtent problem. Thoughts? Alternatives?

Maybe attaching a bold large font note explaining what a scam these are with the web address to this discussion will cause people to stop feeding the bin.