home > news > local

Oops! He Thought the Table Was a Freebie

By Yvonne Nava

| Friday, Sep 4, 2009 | Updated 11:38 AM EST

Oops! He Thought the Table Was a Freebie

New Haven Register

Ronald Zacks, left, made the table and was giving it to his daughter but left it outside. When Frank Yacono, rights, saw it, he thought it was left out for the trash and picked it up.

Someone’s trash is another person’s treasure, except when the item was not supposed to be garbage.

That's what Frank Yacono, of West Haven, learned after he snagged a table from a neighbor’s front yard Monday morning, the New Haven Register reports.

Yacono was driving by Ronald Zacks' Thornton Street home on garbage day and thought the table had been left out on the curb to be discarded.

However, the 4-foot-by 2 ½ foot wooden table, was a present Zacks intended to give his daughter, which is why it was on the curb.

Once the Zacks realized their prized table had been taken, they put out a reward. Yacono soon learned about his mistake and returned it, the Register reports.

“Sorry about that,” Yacono said as he approached Zacks’ home. “I want you to know I’m not a thief.”

Zacks said there is no question it was a mistake.

"He sounded very apologetic," Zacks told the Register. "They really thought it was trash that was left out."