INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — You probably do not think much about getting your trash picked up, unless it does not happen.

One Indianapolis man says in four months, the city only picked up his trash three times. After calling them himself with no results, he called I-Team 8.

“I called in November, my trash don’t get picked up and I get a tracking number, I say ‘cool,’” said Michaal Collins. “It don’t get picked up. I call back again in another month, I get another tracking number. I think it’s been picked up three times since November.” 

Then he spoke with a supervisor, who he says told him they would get the trash. Here’s the issue: His home address is on Meetinghouse Lane, but his driveway and front door face Meetinghouse Court. Collins said they were only picking up the trash when he put it on Meetinghouse Court. 

“I asked specifically, ‘What are the rules?’ By the curb. That is a curb,” said Collins, defending the location of his trash bin.  

He is following all the rules: his trash is not overflowing, the bin is facing the right way, and he says he puts it out on time. He even helps neighbors do the same.

“Neighbors take care of each other,” Collins said. “If somebody doesn’t have their trash out, I help them put it out.”

No one else who puts their trash out on Meetinghouse Lane has an issue. Their trash always gets picked up.

“I would have never thought this simple problem would have came to calling WISH-TV to get it fixed,” said Collins.

I-Team 8 got to work. After we called the Indianapolis Department of Public Works, they said it would be addressed. The solid waste manager said it is “one of those things that happen” and blamed the confusion on the drivers. They sent someone to talk with Collins and told I-Team 8 that administrators would monitor to make sure Collins’ trash is collected. 

Ever since the calls from I-Team 8, they haven’t skipped another trash pick-up.

“I’m extremely pleased,” Collins said. “I’m not more happy, I’m more grateful. How can you not be glad?”

The City of Indianapolis only charges $32 a year for solid waste removal, but they told I-Team 8 they would give Collins a refund if he asked.