Dumpster divers regularly catch companies throwing away good items. For example, CVS tossed out makeup, and Bath and Body Works disposed of candles and lotions. And recently a former Victoria’s Secret worker spilled the tea about how dumpster diving, and then selling the items she found, got her fired.
“I got fired from Victoria’s Secret for stealing,” TikTok user Lile (@itsonlyokwhenidoit) begins in her viral video. “Honestly, I don’t even think I stole.”
“Anytime someone would return something, we’d put it in this big trash can,” she recalls. The items include bras, lingerie, bikini tops lotion, and perfume. “Tags on, unused, it would never go back onto the rack.”
“At the end of shift, I was the ‘chosen one’ to take that trash bag out to the dumpster and throw it out,” she says. Subsequently, she says she would retrieve whatever caught her interest at the end of her shift. “I would drive my car at the end of my shift to the dumpster and then I would like, dumpster dive for the perfect items, unused items, that I just put in the dumpster,” she says.
However, it backfired. “They did see that on CCTV and let me go,” she states. “But I would pick out what fit me, then I would let my friends pick out what they wanted and would sell the rest on eBay.”
Lile describes how she felt in the caption, “i felt like the robin hood of overpriced bras.”
The Daily Dot reached out to Lile via TikTok comment and direct message. The video amassed 1.5 million views and onlookers sided with Lile.
“You did no wrong,” one viewer stated.
“As long as you took the bag after you were off the clock, this was not stealing!” a second commented.
“BUT I agree, if it’s usable it should be used,” a third said.
Moreover, others condemned how wasteful companies can be.
@itsonlyokwhenidoit i felt like the robin hood of overpriced bras
♬ original sound – Lile
“I really don’t understand why companies would much rather throw away perfectly good products rather than donate or give it to the employees,” one user remarked.
“i’ve never understood why stores throw away perfectly good stuff,” a second echoed.
Does Victoria’s Secret really trash so many items?
Indeed, they do. In 2020, the retailer reportedly threw away hundreds of bras into a dumpster. Not only that but sometimes have to destroy items. In 2023, a Victoria’s Secret employee destroyed unsold products. Moreover, a dumpster diver found a stash of new items thrown in the dumpster.
Is it legal to dumpster dive?
Technically, yes it is. According to Legal Match, “Dumpster diving is technically legal in all 50 states as long as it does not conflict with any city or county ordinance or state laws. When a trash bag is sitting on the curb waiting to be picked up by a waste removal company, it enters the public domain.”
