Why are stuffed animals attached to trucks?

August 24, 2005 10:37 AM

So what's the deal with garbage trucks, tractor trailers, construction equipment and other imposing vehicles driving around with dolls and stuffed animals attached to their grills?
posted by swift to Travel & Transportation (2 answers total)

I always assumed, and the book "Mongo" bears this out, that it's stuff they found while out collecting trash. Trophys if you will. For garbage trucks at least, I've never seen it on anything else.
posted by drezdn at 10:43 AM on August 24, 2005

I was a garbage man for a couple years in the summers. The pay is great for a highschool/college kid. At the time (1988), working for Waste Management, I was paid $20/hr, which beat the heck out of fast food money.

Yes, they are "trophies", and considered quite funny by many garbage-people.

The better trophy was porn, of course. Lots and lots of porn goes out every week, and the garbage men "collect" it all, mostly from the same houses. Some people evidently have an unlimited porn budget, and don't like to keep the evidence around.
posted by Invoke at 11:24 AM on August 24, 2005