At The Car Wash

bigrig40

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Jan 21, 2005
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Central Indiana
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Hi all,
After reading my new W&ET magazine,the article on car wash finds intrigued me,especially since a friend of mine owns one here so I asked if I could bag up the stuff the vacuum accumulates for a type of experiment to see what people lose in those things.He said no problem so I came over and we emptied em in 2 large bags.When I got home I equipped myself with gloves and syphoned thru the stuff and found a variety of things such as golf tees,fishing lures ,lots of things I wont mention,and 4 earrings 1 was silver and 257 coins.Couldn't believe that many coins.Makes you think how much money is in our dumps across america.Must be in the millions I would think.

peace,bigrig
 

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That is a True Story BigRig. Did you read the one about the carwash were they dump the cleaner bag out on the back lot and have been doing it for 20 years. That has got too be a gold mine. Great Story. I knew I should have bought a Car vacum Franchise! ;D
 

Nice follow up Bigrig,nice finds.
I had a post back last fall were I had hit a lot next to a car lot that was under the blade for a strip mall, Found over $68.00 in clad, most was QT,Took me awhile to figure it out. The car wash was dumping the vac,s in the lot.IT was so cool at times I would just lay down my MD and turn the soil with the spade and start picking like Iwas in the garden.
 

My daughters used to raid the car wash vacuums, until they got yelled at 'big time' one day. This is small town, you would think people there would be friendlier...that was that!

Great find, tho! I'll have to go raid those things myself when its dark! LOL

Melnatcat
 

I really was thinking about doing that yesterday, but dont think they would let me md there, so too bad but ill try it somtime, HH CS
 

Bigrig,
You should ask yer buddy if he will let you come and empty the vacuums once a week for him. I`m curious, what does your buddy do with the vacuum remains? does he just toss them away. You never know, what`s not in there today may be in there next week.
 

This is my Re; From a previous post......////....
I don't know if you would consider this treasure or not>Marlboro Miles.....When they started thier Promo.....and was giving away a pool table as a prize (Think it was 10-15,000 miles.....I started thinking about how many cigs. I'd have to smoke to get it....Way too many).....but It was at the end of the promo when I figured out how to get that many....I was layed off for 2 weeks and didn't have much to do.....So in my spare time....I hit all the Car wash dumpsters and peeled off the Marlboro Miles....I know that sounds REAL DUMB......But I collected over 11,000 miles in two weeks........I got every thing I wanted in the promo book (including 2 winter coats,and 2 pair of Dan Post Cowboy Boots,2 hot & cold coolers) and still gave away enough miles for my 2 sisters and my nephew to get all they wanted.......
.... I don't do it anymore........But.............A Car Wash can be a Gold Mine to some of us Poor Folks .! and at the car wash you could find enough Marlboro Miles to get your own IRON LUNG ! L.O.L.
 

I repair automated car washes and vacuums on the west coast of Florida From Naples to Tallahassee. I find all kinds of stuff. I found a gold necklace with a cool charm. After 911 I found over 200 magnetic US flags. Sold them at the garage sale for 1.00 a piece. I thought about cleaning vacs but I would need a hasmat suit and a resperator to do it. I do get alot of free change jammed in coin mechs though. When we take out an old machine we turn the coin mechs upside down and shake the crap out of them I usually get 20$ in quarters that have fallen all the way to the bottom. Next Machine I tear out I will scrap it myself. Must be $500.00 in aluminum. I do collect big pieces like arms and stuff till I got a pile in the garage and the wife starts with her yammering then its off to the scrap yard. HH.

CHRIS
 

The big problem here is that people love to vac they're cars out after a rain in which they left the windows down. The water goes down to the bottom and when mixed with the crude in the bottom of the vac., it's almost like concrete. But the finds almost always makes up for the effort, since each vac will almost fill a 30 gal trash can.
 

Cool idea! We had an appliance repair business on the side when I was growing up, repaired many cloths dryers and always found a hand full of change in the bottom. A friend ran a laundry mat, so I tried opening up some of those commercial dryers, didn't find much as they are better designed. HH, Mike
 

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