Mistook my neighbor's recycling bin for the trash can, whole street saw the aftermath

Out in Denver last Tuesday I tossed a leaky paint can into what I thought was trash, but it was actually the green recycling bin. The recycling truck crushed it and blue paint sprayed across the curb and sidewalk, with two kids pointing and laughing. How do you apologize to a neighbor for that mess, or should I just offer to repaint their whole garage?

2 comments

2 Comments

jordancoleman22d ago

Saw my buddy do the exact same thing with old motor oil, took him three weekends of scrubbing to make it right.

blair_allen22d ago

And what was he using to get it off, sand and a wire brush? Because that's the part nobody ever mentions. Everyone knows the shortcut fails, but nobody talks about the cleanup being worse than the original job. Did he end up having to repaint the whole thing, or was the old oil stain just too deep to ever really come out? I've seen people try every solvent known to man on that stuff and it just laughs at them. Three weekends sounds about right if he was doing it right, but I'm guessing he wasn't using the right stuff from the start.