Trash Hunting - Is it offensive?

One morning when I was rushing off to work, I saw a couple of men getting out of their white van (the type that you see in movies whenever they kidnap somebody - the van with no windows) wearing coveralls all covered with paint. Ok - obviously they were painters. However, they didn't get out of the van because they were at a client's house. They got out of the van to go through several people's trash cans.

It was trash day and trash cans were out all over the place. They were stopping at each of the trash cans (I saw them look/skim through trash cans at three different houses) to see what was inside. Weird? Definitely.

Sure - I understand that whatever you place outside your house is there for reason. You have no need for the stuff and you want to get rid of it. The moment that you place it outside for it to be picked up, does it become public property and is it up for grabs? One might think so - but I just find it disturbing.

It's understandable that people might be offended by other people going through their trash. There might be private things inside such as important documents (that you should have shredded), maxi-pads or tampons from the ladies (ew!) or even used condoms. Point is - who wants to go through the trash and see all that crap? However, when it's just big, old furniture sitting out there - would it still be offensive if somebody came by and snatched it up? Maybe not.

Anyway, these men were just glancing inside each of the bins and rifling through some of the stuff just briefly. There was an open box sitting outside with some junk waiting to be picked up. Guess the owners didn't feel like having a garage sale. They never took anything from any of the trash cans they looked through but I was offended. It wasn't even my trash and I was offended.

Do I have reason to be bothered by that or am I just overreacting? Hmmm......