Finding a stack of unopened Little Debbie snacks at the dump sounds like a jackpot. But one Kentucky couple says their odd discovery came with a catch: They weren’t allowed to take any of it home. And that sparked a bigger conversation in the comments about food waste and the legality of it all.
TikTok creators Eddie and Kara (@junkloversky), a husband-and-wife junk removal team, filmed what they found—rows of boxes filled with Little Debbie treats.
“So this is seriously all Little Debbie cakes?” Kara says as the camera pans the pile. “Boxes on top of boxes on top of boxes… most of them brand new in the boxes.”
She points out seasonal “little smiley face pumpkins,” or Pumpkin Delights. She adds that “these used to be my favorite” in reference to Cosmic Brownies. However, she admits some are “a little crushed.”
“Stop it! These are my favorites,” she then says about the Honey Buns.
Then, she shares the sad news: “I’m not allowed to take these with me.”
Why She Says She Couldn’t Take Them
The couple didn’t name the location. But they indicate someone controls the site; think transfer station or privately operated dump. That matters.
Dumpster diving is often legal when trash sits in public. But once it’s on private property, the rules change.
A local legal resource explains that Kentucky’s trespass laws can bar people from entering restricted areas or removing items from dumpsters on private premises. Cities and counties can also add their own no-trespass or loitering restrictions.
If the land or dumpster is privately owned and marked as closed to the public, anyone who takes items from it risks trespass or even theft charges, even if the items are “trash.”
@junkloversky Hundreds of perfectly-good snack cakes DUMPED! And evidently it’s illegal to take them from the dump… What would you do??? #dumpsterdiving #littledebbie
Viewers Ask: Why Dump Food At All?
The comments focused less on the legal side and more on the bigger picture: the waste.
One viewer wrote, “And yet we have millions of homeless hungry people.”
Another urged them to “get someone to grab lots and donate them to the food pantry or homeless shelter.”
Others guessed at what went wrong. “Load was probably rejected for the broken boxes,” one person suggested. Another speculated, “They were probably the recalled ones due to listeria.”
That last claim doesn’t line up with public records. In 2021, McKee Foods recalled 25 cases of Little Debbie Mini Nutty Buddy Cookie Bites Sandwich Cookies because they may contain undeclared pecans—an allergen issue limited to specific lots in a few states.
There’s no FDA notice tying Little Debbie snack cakes to a listeria recall in that period.
BroBible has reached out to McKee Foods and Junk Lovers via email.