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Two of the “nicest guys ever” are scheduled to appear in court just days before Christmas to defend themselves against charges of defiant trespassing and loitering and prowling at night.
How are these two the nicest guys ever? Easy.
Meet brothers-in-law Tom Moyer and Sam Troyer from Lebanon, Pa. The pair had the unusual habit of leaving their homes in the dark of night to jump into trash dumpsters behind stores on the search for food. They’d spend hours at a time picking through trash and typically came away with a haul of thousands of dollars of discarded inventory of food and candy in their original packaging, they told PennLive.com.
They’d bring the food home, but as their hauls started getting bigger and bigger, they had an idea: Share the food with charitable organizations in central Pennsylvania so it gets to people who really need it.
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But they also made a habit of dressing in black and wearing gloves and headlights as they scavenged through various dumpsters. So, yeah, they looked suspicious. And in October, they were arrested while dumpster-diving behind a CVS store in Hershey, Pa., according to PennLive.com.
(Photo courtesy of Rob Greenfield)
The charges are misdemeanors in the third degree. And there’s a bit of a twist that could complicate the defense for the do-good brothers-in-law in that, according to PennLive.com via Dauphin County property records, the dumpster is on private property owned by a company based in New Jersey.
“[Police] usually just ask us what we were doing, pat us down really quickly, and we never really had anything dangerous on us,” Troyer told PennLive.com. “They’d run our licenses, check for warrants. They sometimes tell us they don’t want us to come back, and we’re always compliant.”
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A spokesman for CVS Health said in a statement that the Rhode Island-based company doesn’t “condone dumpster diving,” but that company officials “never pressed charges” against the men — and “have no plans to do so. The incident occurred while the store was closed and we were made aware of the arrests by police the next day.
“Our CVS Pharmacy locations work with local nonprofit organizations including Feeding America, the Salvation Army and local food banks and shelters to arrange for damaged or near-expired goods to be donated to those in need in the communities we serve, and helps ensure that our disposed products reach people in a safe manner.”
The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that 30 to 40 percent of the American food supply is wasted.
Environmental activist Rob Greenfield made the video declaring Moyer and Troyer “the nicest guys ever,” and he launched a GoFundMe campaign after their arrest. It’s called the “Dumpster Divers Defense Fund” and it not only advocates for the charges against them to be dropped, but promises to use the money raised to pay for the legal bills of dumpster-divers everywhere.
As of Dec. 9, the campaign has raised just over $1,800 of its $5,000 goal.
The men told PennLive.com that perhaps they shouldn’t have worn clothes that make them look more like cat burglars than food hunters, and that they hope their arrests will open eyes around the country about the travesty of food waste.
“There needs to be a change made with these chain stores and big box stores instead of writing it off and throwing it out of sight, out of mind,” Troyer said.
