I have a story here I like to share:
One of my dad's friends is what you call a "pack rat". Someone who hoards away lots of old tools, trays, you name it. He
always finds ways to make use of them for his own pet projects. He has stuff packed in his house, the basement, the shed, the garage, and his entire backyard.
Now normally, this would be a good thing for him, right? Well yeah. However, one of his neighbors that he doesn't get along with didn't see it that way and considered his stuff a "nuisance". So what does his neighbor do? He calls the city and complain.
The next day, the city crew comes in and starts seizing all of his belongings in the backyard (they could not seize anything that is in his house, shed or garage though since they don't have authority for that). Now a lot of those belongings were in perfectly good condition. The city crew seizes nearly all of it so they could take it to the dump. Hell, they even seized a 100 foot roll of red gift wrap! My dad's friend was really upset but there was nothing he could do about it. He was ordered to keep his hands off of everything in plain sight.
A week later, he gets a bill for the entire collection which amounted to nearly a thousand dollars. Yes, my dad's friend gets
billed for "clean up" that he
never asked for. Nice way to add insult to injury huh?
This happened a couple of years ago. The neighbor who complained passed away last year and my dad's friend still collects stuff but only in small quantities this time. Still, it was a terrible waste to see a lot of good things going to the dump. Hell, he even tells me that a lot of things at the dump are still in pristine condition and the public is forbidden from setting foot there. Yeah...
Here's the kicker. Are you ready for this? It actually didn't work.
You couldn't try to get it repaired?