Bizarre trend emerges in Aussie city as $400 worth of unopened food found in bush
Littering and illegal dumping continue to run rampant in Townsville, but in a bizarre turn of events, locals are now finding hundreds of unopened packets of chips and drink cans strewn across the bush.
Adding to the wide range of items that are regularly dumped along north Queensland's Bohle River, such as furniture, tyres, shopping trolleys, and remnants of illegal copper burning, the unopened goods were found by two volunteers who often patrol the littering hotspots along Dalrymple Road and Hervey Range Road. Dave Dudley and Ian Matthews from Townsville Tidy Up, an organisation created to clean up the city, explained there have been four separate incidents of chip and can littering in the last four weeks.
"There were all these cans there and I thought, wait a minute, most of the packets of chips are half full and they're all in date," Ian told Yahoo News, recalling his most recent discovery over the weekend. "It's the third time that I've found this kind of thing. My mate Dave also found the same sort of thing, it's probably happened four times in four weeks... It's odd."
The littering has occurred across two sites, and the goods have been largely unopened. The few chip packets that have been opened have been discarded on the ground.
"It's just been a mess of unopened cans and bottles and drink containers, and just for some odd reason some packets of chips emptied all over the ground," Dave explained to Yahoo News. "I reckon it's been more than $400 worth of stuff."
👷♂️ Tradies forced to make $100,000 clean-up after selfish act at national park
🚘 Hundreds of tyres mysteriously stacked up in family's driveway
🚨 Cops make 'extremely dangerous' find on ute tyres
The pair told Yahoo News they had no idea who was behind the behaviour and why it was happening, but are both eager to get answers. Yahoo News reached out to Townsville Council after Dave said he has reported each incident to the council via the SnapSendSolve app.
A spokesperson for the Department of Environment, Tourism, Science and Innovation (DETSI) told Yahoo News it has received no reports of the littering incidents but warned anyone caught in the act will be fined $322.
There were suggestions online that goods were stolen from a local supermarket or club, however, these have been purely speculative and a theory Ian has discredited.
"I think a shop would have reported it after four weeks in a row," he said. Dave also weighed into the oddness of the situation, questioning why the goods were not being enjoyed at a time when grocery prices are rising, and Aussie households are struggling to make ends meet.
"It's strange. I don't know why, if you have access to stock, why you wouldn't give it away or eat them yourself," Dave said.
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