Sorry. I didnt realise it was a specific "council clean up" and if it was side by side with other stuff from the same house with definate other garbage. ? ?
The way I read it, was that it was "assumed" that it might be a council clean up.
We might have to go the the replay referee.lol to see if it was or wasnt a definate official council clean up with everyone in the street having stuff all outside, ore just one pinball machine sitting out by itself as someone drove past.
But, ya have to admit, a perfect pinball just left outside in the context i read it under, i thought it was suspect. 
p.s - its not often i ask Nick (Pinnies4me) to provide a lawful explanation of the "stealing by finding" law, but it certainly exists in all states of Australia to my knowledge.
Yes, it was council "garbage", i didnt bother to mention that the pinnie was being used as a table to support 10 smaller boxes of shit on it and under it....
and to correct everyone, it actually *IS* theft to take council cleanup rubbish off the naturestrip here in VIC at least.
While EVERYONE does take stuff, doesnt make it legal ;-)
In fact some suburbs now have council patrol/sherriffs office to issue fines....they now pull over vans full of TV sets and ask where they got them from etc....
Of course, council can't be everywhere at once, so everyone still gets away with it...
anyhoo....
sounds like a stupid law, as far as i can see by people grabbing stuff from the kurb & recycling it, it will lower the amount of land fill.
Up here it is theft to take anything from a tip face, there is a thing called scavenger rights.
