Companies often buy lots of tech stuff to use or give away as promotional items, but sometimes they just get stuck in a closet.

What would you do if you were tasked with cleaning out a closet, and an executive said to get rid of everything, including all the tech stuff within?

That is what happened to the technical support guy in this story, so he took over $10,000 worth of new and gently used items for himself and his coworkers.

“Just throw it out!”

I worked for a govtech company a number of years ago that tried to market itself like a gaming company would.

Well, sometimes this type of marketing can work.

Ultra slick image and lots of “What’s up fellow kids?” behavior. We moved offices and shortly after said move, tons of boxes were shoved into the network closet.

I needed to get at a few things, and shifted some boxes.

If they want it thrown out, throw it out.

A C-level walked by and said, “Oh that stuff shouldn’t have moved with us. Just throw it out.”

I wasn’t going to get blamed for throwing out important stuff, so I opened the boxes.

Don’t let that stuff go to waste.

Tech Goodies galore. All functional. I asked the same C-level if we should keep it. He outright yells at me, “I SAID THROW IT OUT!”

So I did. Into mine and half the team’s bags. Just some highlights of stuff that was “thrown out.”

Wow, this is some amazing stuff.

• An ASUS gaming laptop, brand new, never on the MDM
• 2 Sonos Bluetooth speakers, brand new
• A Google glass headset
• Brand new Beats headphones, still shrink-wrapped.
• 14 Raspberry Pi kits
• A 30 piece precision tool kit
• A Blue podcasting microphone
• 4 Samsung tablets

Everything was either brand new or only slightly used and easily wiped of data.

Yeah, they’re going to get a ton of great stuff!

Myself, IT, and engineering had a field day. I still have the ASUS laptop to run some legacy software and my partner still uses one of the tablets.

In all, there was probably about $10,000 worth of stuff in those boxes that we “threw out.”

It is incredible what some companies throw away.

I still get junk from employers, but this was definitely the most memorable.

The amount of waste that occurs with big businesses is amazing, but it sure is nice when it benefits the employees.

Let’s see what the people in the comments have to say about this.

Incredible.

I want some free TVs!

Apparently, everyone gets free stuff.

Wow, this is huge!

This guy made out like a bandit.

Corporate waste is off the charts.

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.