They didn't hold up to the bears of Alaska, but they just might be enough to discourage the scavengers of Santa Ana.
Fed up with urban foragers who root through neighborhood trash in search of plastic and aluminum, residents of one Santa Ana neighborhood are locking up their recyclables in a container designed to withstand the brute strength and cunning of brown and black bears.
So it is that Paula Faccou now keeps a key -- right on the same chain with her house key -- to lock up her trash. And when the hauler drives down the street and upends the cart over his truck with an automated arm, the gravity-driven lock pops open.
Now there's hope on Van Ness Avenue that the bear bins will drive off people like the man Faccou nearly bumped into on her driveway one day as she was carrying in groceries.
"It just scared the living heck out of me," said the 67-year-old retiree. "A complete stranger, standing outside. It was very brazen, and that's pushing it too much. They have told me, 'What's your problem, lady? It's just trash,' but I pay for trash service. . . . I should decide where it goes."
City officials said they've seen a recent uptick in complaints about scavengers prowling the night before trash day, when bins are full of bottles and cans.
"It was pretty much a given that the economy was driving the increase in scavenging," said Mary Gonzales, the city's project manager, who is overseeing the program.
"People wanted some sort of solution to this."
Scavenging has become a source of frustration in the Wilshire Square neighborhood, where Faccou and others complain of the late-night noise and abandoned shopping carts.
So residents in this community of wide lawns and Revival-style homes began to push back. After several public meetings to devise an anti-scavenger strategy, the city proposed a lockdown in the neighborhood -- mostly to prevent the scavengers' late-night expeditions but also out of a belief by homeowners that they alone should control the destiny of their garbage.
The pilot program by Waste Management is being tested this summer at a dozen homes on two streets. The neighborhood is just one of a few nationwide that have started locking up curbside bins.
As in other cities, it's against the law in Santa Ana for anyone but the property owner or trash hauler to remove items from recycling carts once they are curbside.
