Trashing Alaska Style (February, 1985)
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By The GCI Guy

     We left that Friday night with no idea that we would end up at our local 
CO. A group of computer enthusiasts and I usually go cruise and look for 
trouble in our car properly named The Lead Sled. It is named this because it is an extremely old Monte Carlo that is painted five different shades of gray.

     There was nothing happening on the local drag and that is when I remembered
something I had seen on a BBS the night before.

     "Let's go trashing,"  I said with hopes of an answer. But all I got was a
grumble from the back seat and a question thrown at me from the driver. I
explained to them what trashing was and the whole car seemed to like the idea
of looking through someone else's garbage, especially our local CO's.

     Now the thing that I really hate about our CO is that they have a "mascot"
color, baby blue. They paint their repair trucks, representatives, and main
building all this same color.

     We carefully turned the engine off when we approached the baby blue monster
and coasted behind a group of trees. We had to run about a mile to the dumpsters
and I think that this was our biggest mistake. But what can you expect from
first time trashers?

    The CO has a "protective" fence around their lot. So we picked a small, thin
phreaker to slide under the gate. He then dived into the dumpster with a look
of triumph in his eyes.

    We waited for him to emerge with a bag when suddenly a man in baby blue
overalls appeared. I yelled for everyone to blow and that s what we did. The
skinny phreaker slid under the fence and we were history.

    I ran fast, the fastest I think I ever ran. But with the CO's security 
guards after you, you had to. We ran back to the Sled but found that it was 
surrounded by men in baby blue overalls. This is where we made another mistake 
- we split up, hoping that maybe we wouldn't be caught if we weren't a large 
group.

    "They've been caught!" was the only thing that ran through my mind as I ran 
for an abandoned shopping mall. Me and about two other phreakers hid out there 
for  about two hours until we thought the coast was clear. But we were wrong.

     As we were making our way back to the Sled, we were stopped by a security 
guard who asked us a lot of questions. Luckily we were able to B.S. him. But 
when we got back to the Sled, it was gone.

     I panicked. No Sled, no ride, and no trash. Then suddenly I heard a honk 
and it  was the Sled.

     Since that unfortunate experience we have made countless trips to the CO 
and have retrieved bags and bags of trash. Learn by your mistakes.