Some students crave doughnuts enough to climb inside of dumpsters to get them.
Hannah Merk, a freshman education major, said she went to Concannon’s Bakery as part of her Ball State bucket list. She said she went for the dumpster doughnuts because she knew others did it, and she felt like it was something she needed to do before graduating.
When Merk and her friends opened the dumpster, they saw black, plastic bags.
“I started ripping into them, and I was like, ‘This one has doughnuts,’” she said. “I had to get all three of my friends to help me pick it up because it was like 50 pounds of doughnuts.”
Mike Concannon, the owner of Concannon’s Bakery, said he doesn’t think people dumpster dive at the business.
“We have people watching the business 24 hours a day,” Concannon said. “We haven’t had anyone in years.”
Despite the security, Lee Jerstad, a senior public relations major, said she got Concannon’s doughnuts from the business’ dumpsters three times last year.
“When I [went], it was a blast,” Jerstad said. “You can smell [the doughnuts], and you never know which doughnuts are going to be in the bag. ... It’s like hitting the jackpot.”
She said she felt like Concannon’s left the doughnuts out on purpose.
“They’re always off to the side,” Jerstad said. “They leave the gate [to the dumpster] unlocked, so all you do is open the gate and you can smell the bag.”
She said four or five layers of doughnuts are placed in the bags with wax paper separations, almost “so it’s not like they’re throwing them away.”
“It seems like they really do put them in a bag and set them outside for people to get,” Jerstad said.
Lt. Steve Cox with the Muncie Police Department said unless the company or business makes it clear to the police that it doesn’t want people in its trash, the department won’t take action.
“It could be a trespassing issue if restaurants made it clear they didn’t want anyone in it,” Cox said. “We take it case by case. If someone called and said, ‘Hey, we have people in our dumpsters, can you please tell them to get out?’ ... We would.”
Cox said he couldn’t think of any companies calling the police for trespassing.
Although people have questioned Merk for getting doughnuts from a dumpster, she said it was worth it.
“There were some people who were like, ‘You really got these out of the dumpster?’” she said. “... It seems kind of gross, I guess, but they were in trash bags. So, I think it’s fine.”
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