Good Samaritan returned the garbage dumped near his house

An Australian man likely came home Saturday and discovered a pile of garbage returned to his front yard by a Good Samaritan.

Frederick Tomlinson, who lives in the Northern Territory, noticed that a truckload of trash had been dumped in the bush near his house.

He and a friend initially thought to clean it up, but they soon found pieces of paper identifying the man responsible.

So they thought the only thing to do was to give it back. They packed it into Tomlinson's truck and drove to the perpetrator's house in Bakewell, a small suburban town.

"Somebody dumped their rubbish in the bush, so I'm taking it back to their house in my ute personally thanks to their address on all their paper work," Tomlinson wrote on Facebook.

Ute is Australian slang for a car or truck that has a cargo tray in the back, like a pickup truck.

Among the rubbish, they found a rabbit cage and a fish tank. Tomlinson told NT News he assumed these items had all fallen out of the owner's truck.

Should the garbage have been dropped there on purpose, the man would have been dumping illegally.

"My idea was to let him clean it up himself and avoid a fine while letting him know people don't want that kind of behaviour," he said to NT News, adding that unceremonious dumping makes it harder to enjoy the outdoors.

"Eventually the government clamps down on outdoor activities entirely because it's too difficult to clean up after them like they have in New South Wales, Queensland and [South Australia]."

The owner wasn't home at the time of delivery. However, Tomlinson was certain the discarded goods belonged to the man, as a neighbour pointed out that the fellow had done some spring cleaning a few days prior.