By Lee Cataluna
Advertiser Columnist

Chalk it up to the changing times, but it's just not safe to put Christmas beer out for the trash collectors anymore.

"So huhu," Reina Garcia wrote in an e-mail. Her Christmas beer for the refuse workers got stolen. Twice. When the trash cans went out early Wednesday morning for the regular Kane'ohe drive pickup, so did her family's annual Christmas gift to the hard-working crew that picks up their 'opala.

"As I left for work, I noticed that our gift was gone, but that the rubbish had not yet been emptied. WHAT!! Sure enough, someone had taken our gift," Garcia said.

So she did what most self-respecting put-out-da-beer-every-Christmas local person would do — she zoomed over to Safeway for another case.

"Don't want the rubbish men to think that we forgot them!" she said.

Hana hou. The second case was taken before the rubbish truck ever turned the corner.

Garcia noticed that several of her neighbors' beer offerings got scooped up, too, while the cases of juice and bags of rice were left behind.

"We did call the police, who told us that there is nothing they could do about it, since stuff left on the bins is considered abandoned property and anyone can take it!" Garcia said.

Technically, according to CrimeStoppers' Detective Letha DeCaires, it is a crime to take something intended for someone else, particularly when that something is wrapped with a bow and "FOR THE REFUSE WORKERS — MAHALO!" tag on it. But it gets complicated when that ribbon, bow and beer is on a trash can at the curb. Bottom line is, there's just not much police can do. This is something better dealt with on the prevention end.

So what to do?

Perhaps it's time to rethink this local holiday tradition — not the giving part, but WHAT to give and HOW.

It might be a matter of waiting until you hear that familiar rumble coming down the street, then running out in your puka shirt jammies with 10 bucks in an envelope to give to the driver.

On a side note, the larger question of beer for the refuse workers has been answered:

"The city ethics commission determined several years ago that it was acceptable for our refuse workers to accept whatever gifts may be placed out for them, provided that all customers were treated equally whether or not they gave a gift," said city spokesman Doug Woo.

As alcoholic beverages are not allowed in city vehicles, often refuse workers will enlist a friend in a private car to go along the route to help with the gift collecting. Which also makes catching beer thieves very hard.

"Uh, I just picking 'em up for my friend in the truck."

So perhaps the best answer is that hand-delivered envelope with a Longs gift card. Let them buy their own ... juice.

Lee Cataluna's column runs Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at 535-8172 or lcataluna@honoluluadvertiser.com.