Dumpster Dive

I took down the swing set on Saturday. Rust set in. A hacksaw was involved.

It was effectively destroyed. The three A-frame pipes hacksawed off where they connected to the center pipe. All that was left was the see-saw and the bucket glider, which I left attached, but their plastic seats were broken and faded.

Today is the bulk trash day. So, a little after 1PM yesterday I hauled the following to the street and left it all in a pile.

Six useless pipes.
One crossbar pipe.
Attached to the pipe were four strands of chain for two swings that no longer existed. A "trapeze" bar with chains. The see-saw. The bucket glider. The latter two were significantly bent in the deconstruction.

Since it was bulk trash day, I added some old wood the previous owners left behind. It was the kind of wood that was neatly stacked and didn't need to be moved when we moved in, but after a decade any projects I might've been thinking about using it for hadn't happened...and it was starting to decay. So, off to the pile. In fact, placed on top of the pile.

I added some brush I'd cleared, too. This is a really impressive pile. So impressive that I started thinking that any neighbors who viewed said pile might just be wondering what the heck is going on in my backyard that I can have that impressive of a pile on a random weekday cleanup.

Anyway, I get a text message from the smokin' hot shutterbug trophy wife that says:

"Swing set was gone by 5PM."

I texted back that it was useless and destroyed.

She replied, "Yep. They took every bit of it."

When I got home the rotting wood was in a nice pile next to the brush, and they'd taken every bit of it.

A few things came to mind about all this:

Surely the most likely thing that can be going on is that somebody collects scrap metal to sell.
Or an artist saw some possibility in the junk?
Or maybe an enterprising dad could restore it to the intended purpose with a drill and rustoleum?
I live on a side street somewhat removed from any main routes someone would drive. It's a lazy street, man. How the heck could someone scout this out so quickly that it was GONE less than four hours after it was put out there? Is there bigger money in selling scrap metal/art/restoration than I know?

I mean, I heard of some guys that would haul away sections of replaced privacy fencing and scoured neighborhoods. But they took the wood and made these cool benches out of them. Sold them at Canton's First Monday Trade Days at $50 bucks per.

But the used swing set?

So, what I'm asking is if anyone knows the going rate for selling scrap metal (I wouldn't even know where to go to do that), or if you're aware of any cool modern art being shown, or you see some kids playing on a five-foot (rather than six-foot) swing set, fill me in, okay? Now I'm kind of curious...