last things were office supplies and small electronic components when I worked for big corporate companies.
These days I am allowed to order any of these within reason for when I am working from home and indeed encouraged to take obsolete or broken equipment as you can’t dump it in the trash in Europe any more (WEEE laws) and I’m trusted not to fraudulently divert more expensive kit for my own use. Even so quite a lot of good stuff turns up this way (as my employers don’t want it taking up room), out of some 10 year old computers I managed to build one working one which isn’t a top rate machine for multimedia by any means but I can dedicate it simply to recording and logging audio traffic from a radio scanner.
I’ve got to do some more work on the antennas this weekend (inside my AV/electronics room is too much interference) but when its going I can literally monitor every aircraft as far away as Maastricht approach, as well as all ships and even some town taxicabs.
Also (not quite stealing and well intentioned) nearly ended up taking home a Cavalier King Charles spaniel a few years ago as it had wandered into my old office (way out in the sticks in converted horse stables) and was running about under my desk – I thought it was a local cat at first.
I’d heard from some hippies that if you just gave it to the dog warden it would be put down after 7 days if not claimed, so I had every intention of keeping it for a bit and still keeping my street cred by telling my mates I was looking after my nan’s dog, they wouldn’t know my Nan lives in Kuala Lumpur rather than Stowmarket and her dog is actually a odd cross between a poodle and a Norfolk terrier (which would not even be odd to have in Stowmarket). Eventually it would have gone to a dogs home where I knew they’d find a home for it, unless I could somehow offload it to an old lady who wanted a dog. Luckily I was able to trace its owner and return it, saving all this hassle..
