Digging through the tank: a woman found her future husband in a garbage dump - photos
A husband and wife told how they ended up in a landfill and fell in love with each other. SSPDaily tells about it.
39-year-old Erin Sheffield and her 35-year-old husband Dave met in a dumpster in Buffalo, New York, in 2009.
Dave was in town getting a mechanical engineering degree at the University at Buffalo, and Erin had recently moved there to work at a bike shop.
The couple, who got engaged in 2020, married in 2021, and are expecting their first child in April, spoke about their whirlwind romance.
"I started dumpster diving in garbage cans in college. Dave was very similar. I had just moved to Buffalo and was dumpster diving on my own," explained Erin, who now works as a coordinator for a charity.
One day, when Erin was rummaging through trash cans at the University at Buffalo, she spotted her future husband.
"We met in a dumpster. I saw him, stuck my head out and asked him what he was doing. He jumped out, we cleaned up and spent the whole day dumpster diving," she said. "We exchanged numbers, kept hanging out and have been diving as a couple ever since."
Dave, a trash lover, was a breath of fresh air for Erin, who struggled to explain her love of clearing garbage piles to her potential partners.
After a few months of diving together as friends, they became a couple and their hobby turned into a lucrative side hustle after they started selling the items they found.
In particular, they found textbooks, expensive calculators, stationery, and laundry detergent in trash cans near the university. When the pandemic began, they found even more treasures in the trash can. Their prizes included scrap metal, furniture, and other everyday items, which they began selling on eBay or Facebook Marketplace.
"Things that I can find and sell on eBay or Facebook, and then things that we can either donate or keep," explained Dave, the business owner. "I would say we make $20,000 a year in resale."
Not only can they find items to sell, but they can also give each other romantic gifts.
"For our anniversary, I found roses in a recycling bin-they were perfect, not even old," Dave said. "I find a lot - especially in the months leading up to Christmas. If I find something I know Erin will like, I'll take it," he added.
According to Dave, in addition to roses, he gave his beloved "coffee mugs, candle holders, candles, and flower pots." They even managed to find things for their child in the garbage.
"One baby store went bankrupt and we found some great stuff there," Dave said. "We found a baby swing and a baby seat, and I also found some unopened bottles that I kept," he added.
The couple also decided to start a new business. They are going beyond selling goods on social media and creating a company called Lost Goods, where they will sell their treasures found in the dumpster.
"In the business, we'll be using a lot of the materials we find to recycle furniture and things like that," Dave said. "We try to go out two or three times a week, depending on the week, and it's a little bit challenging for Erin right now.
