My Dad used to be a Teamster driver for a paper supply warehouse in NYC.
He was king of the Dumpter Divers. He came home with the craziest stuff. The best? A gangster roll of cash. $1500 in 100's 50's and 20's. It was in an industrial area near a dumpster.
Check these guys out, its a hobby for them:
http://www.dumpsterdiving.net/
We also had a cable TV box that we hooked up back in the late 70's early 80's, it had push buttons that clicked on top of it. We had all the stations offered for free.