The Gray Market of Natural Disasters

My daughter and her husband are pickers in the Kansas City area. Once successful corporate denizens, they left the rat race to follow their hobby to a better life.

They take their little trailer out to the nicer neighborhoods on each area’s trash pickup day and forage for reusable furniture, power tools, antique mirrors and lots more. It is surprising the quality of things people throw away when they redo their decor or order new, fancier stuff.

My daughter is an artistic and innovative person so she paints and enhances things while the likewise talented hubby repairs and modifies things in his workshop. The resulting pieces are wonderful and fetch a good price in their hoity toity shop and web site. They make a comfortable living, their webcasts are popular and they are quite happy.

Recently they moved to a larger house and decided to replace their refrigerator for a larger one. They found a deal online for a big Amana stainless that normally commands well over a thousand dollars, for only $300. It cooled and froze when they went to look at it, so they took it home. That’s when they called me for advice on how to shim its freezer door.

The freezer door appeared to be misaligned, causing the edge seal to leak a little. We could not at first see why the door was slightly cocked and there was no provision to adjust it, so that was the first puzzle.

After a little more inspection we discovered that the water control solenoid for the ice maker and cold water dispenser was also broken. This was perplexing because the solenoid was inside the guts of the refrigerator underneath, tucked inside a rail. The only way something could have struck it was from below and it did not have the “pushed out” fracture that you would expect it it froze and burst. Odd, indeed.

A plastic bin in one of the doors was freshly cracked and there was a dent/crack in the freezer compartment plus a dent in the outside of the door, like a golf ball had hit it. All odd for such a nice unit, probably owned by people that didn’t destroy their stuff as a matter of habit.

The final mystery was when we noticed the fridge did not line up with the wall next to it. The wall was plumb vertically so it was the fridge that was not standing up quite straight.

We discussed our options but they liked the unit, the ice maker and water dispenser. It was large and did cool well so they decided to order a new solenoid water valve, shim the freezer door, put a wood plate under one side to make it stand up straight, fix the cracks and be done. This is, after all, what they do for a living. Fearless picker/fixers.

At three o’clock that next morning, I awoke to the full realization of what the deal was with their mystery Amana.

They had bought a tornado fridge, most likely hauled up from Nashville which had recently suffered a devastating twister. I believe it had been lifted skyward and suffered a bent cabinet when it fell to earth. Objects inside the unit caused the cracked door bin and dent inside the freezer. The broken valve and dent in the face of the unit were probably from landing upon or striking other debris in midair. It’s probably a testament to the Amana company that it survived as well as it did.

Now, these kids are successful pickers so, on the one hand, it’s a little ironic they got taken on it. But, as they point out, even with the cost of a new valve and fixing or accepting its other flaws, it is still a good deal. The undeniable negative thing is, the buyer did not disclose the origin or true nature of the purchase.

“If he had told us everything that was wrong with it, we would have still bought it. He didn’t have to be deceitful.”

And they are right. People will buy damaged merchandise if you level with them and if the price makes it worth it to fix or live with the warts. Car dealers do it every year in the Miidwest after the annual hail storms. Scratch and dent outlets are one of the most popular venues for water heaters, furnaces, washers, dryers and, yes, refrigerators.

But the guy that sold them the fridge was a disaster picker. And I am sure, in his mind, he justified it as a still good unit at a low price even after the few needed repairs. Or maybe even he did not realize the water valve was busted because he did not have it plugged into a water source when they went to see it. It wasn’t next to a straight wall, so perhaps its out-of-plumb- cabinet was not noticed. Who knows?

The point of my story is that most people don’t think about what happens to all the “stuff” that litters the landscape after a hurricane, tornado, wildfire or earthquake. We assume guys with bulldozers and skid loaders haul it all off to a landfill somewhere and everything get replaced and rebuilt. But there are many things that survive with little or no damage, even after the rightful owners have picked through and recovered whatever treasures they can. They will rescue grandma’s silver service and family photos but may not take the cast iron fence or the soapstone woodstove that was stored in the garage anyway.

A wealth of recoverable wrought iron gates, sculptures, coin collections, antique glassware, hand tools, chains, winches, hoists, steel beams, wood stoves and such are left behind by discouraged and aggrieved family members, compensated and relocated owners. These are prime pickings for a niche of people experienced at plucking roses from manure heaps.

Now, let’s distinguish between pickers and looters. Looters are the scum of the disaster. They rush in immediately, even as people are suffering and haul off anything of value that they can. They are despicable criminals.

Disaster pickers search, watch and wait for the opportunity to liberate something that has not been claimed and is bound for the landfill. Often they’ll take a truckload of stuff to a city outside the disaster area where folks won’t be consciously thinking about disaster debris. They, or perhaps another crew if its a larger operation, will do a perfunctory inspection and basic cleaning. You can’t have soot, seaweed or mud all over your new inventory, you know.

Then, each piece is listed on Marketplace, Ebay or other sites, at a great price compared to normal value. “We’re moving and can’t take it”, “we don’t use it anymore and need the money”, “it was grandma’s and she left it to us”, etc. But they generally DON’T tell you where it really came from. And many times, it works out fine for all concerned, a semi-legit repurposing of a usable commodity and a good bargain for the unwitting buyer.

At other times, it can be a grand rip-off.

We’ve all seen the pictures of a flooded New Orleans or Sandy Hook with cars submerged to the rooftops. Once the waters recede, those cars are often towed to a municipal lot for retrieval by the owners or insurance companies that sell them on for scrap. Other times, if they are tempting luxury models or in seeming good condition, disaster pickers will haul them away to salvage yards in distant cities where they are hosed out, blown out, aired out and perhaps provided with fresh fuel and batteries. Seats and door panels from similar cars in the salvage yard are installed then the car is out on the market for a bargain price and their lips are sealed.

This is, of course, a big problem. Not just because it was sold unscrupulously and maybe without even a salvage title, but because cars electronics, engines, transmissions and interiors aren’t designed to be soaked.

When a flood happens it is not just water that causes damage. Mud, sewage, fuel and chemicals from sundry sources are also in the mix. It infiltrates cavities, soaks into insulation and wood. It gets in deep where you can’t see it or clean it out, short of a total dismantling of the subject house, car or whatever.

And it smells. You may not notice it right away over the Lysol, Lavender, Christmas tree or incense that accompanies your new four year old, low-mileage, $1000 Camry but you will soon when the summer sun brings out all that is good and stinky inside the door and fender cavities, under the spare tire and sound proof matting under the carpet.

So, let this be a cautionary tale. Everything has to be somewhere and the salvageable debris from this year’s various calamities WILL be finding its way to a city near you.

Caveat emptor, baby, and good pickins to ya.