I Built a Fake Dumpster for Stealth Camping

What you're looking at is not a dumpster. Although it looks like one, it's secretly built to function like a fully drivable camper. I've spent the past 22 days of my life building this from scratch to be an exact replica of an LA dumpster. Rigged with live surveillance cameras, motorized wheels, air conditioning, and a bed in hopes of spending the night inside of it along the Venice Boardwalk with one simple goal. Don't get caught. But is that even possible with thousands of people walking by? What if they use the dumpster? What if a garbage truck tries to empty the dumpster? And what happens if someone finds the hidden cameras inside of the dumpster? All of those questions will be answered in this video. It's a truly wild story, so grab your popcorn and thank you, Shopify, for sponsoring it. Our story begins last year when my friend sent me a video of something he had just built. This I put a bunch of three retcons in trench coats inside of a secret art gallery hidden inside of a dumpster. I mean, how great is this? This is my friend Sunday Nobody. He's a self-proclaimed meme artist and one of the most creative people I know. When he sent this to me, I was watching a lot of Steve Wallace videos at the time, so as I watched him build this masterpiece, the dumpster stealth camper idea just kind of hit me like a dumpster. But I didn't want to build it without his blessing. May I have your permission to- Yeah, I'm seeing a stalker right there. Yes. You do. Next, I shared my other big inspiration for the project. So there's this guy on the internet, Steve Wallace. If you don't know him, he's a YouTuber with almost 2 million subscribers who's become known for camping in the most unexpected places. Roundabouts, dump trucks, school buses, you name it, he's probably camped there. Go subscribe if you haven't. I tell Sunday how I am such a fan of this guy. Because of that, here I am wanting to camp inside a dumpster. He gives me a bunch of dumpster building tips. Thank you, Sunday. See you on Monday. I start off a lot of these videos saying, I'm not a good builder. I feel like I'm getting better. This build in particular, I did something I never do. I came up with a plan. Which began right here, measuring a real life dumpster. 42, 6 feet, 3 foot 6, 3 foot 7, 4 foot 3 and a half. And then I sent all of these dimensions in to the metal supply place and they just cut them all for me. And that's like what all that is. So in a perfect world, this is like Legos. It never really turns out to be like Legos, but a boy can dream. Editing Preston, can you explain a little more of like- So the build comes down to four main challenges. I gotta figure out how to build the frame, turn it into a go-kart, make it look like a dumpster, but make it feel like a camper. And to do any of these four steps will require the most amount of welding I've ever done. And I talk to my camera, 3 centimeters away. Wow, there's a lot of stuff in my face. Alright, let's begin. On really long build days like this, one of my absolute favorite things to do is listen to music. You're doing great! Huh? I get in the zone, burn through a few albums, and somehow solve half of the build without even realizing it. And it all feels thanks to the noise cancelling function. Whoa! But your boy is very jumpy, and what you just saw happens to me all of the time. At least I did finish welding these two rectangles. Victory! They would eventually turn into the back wall and the front wall of the dumpster. And yeah, I just kind of welded it all together. Sick! On to the next thing. I don't know what that is, but. Transitional moment. Whoa! So yeah, I finished the frame, which meant it was time to somehow turn this into a go cart, which meant I'm going to put the wheels on and hopefully make the frame of the dumpster just fly. The plan is for the skateboards to be in the middle, and then the wheels to be in the corners. I don't know if that's a great idea, but it's an idea. This may be the hardest part, is what I'm thinking. But if it doesn't drive on its own, it's like, why even have a camper dumpster thingy, you know? So. Wheel time. I was pretty excited mounting these wheels, mostly because I had no idea how fast the electric skateboards would make the dumpster go. This does not go under. The skateboards need to go under without lifting the frame, otherwise this thing's going to be Wobble McGee. And yeah, we don't want Wobble McGee, which ultimately means I bought the wrong wheels. So. Am I going to drive two hours to pick up better wheels? Because that'll most likely... Thank you! Have a good one! I will now push the board underneath, hope it clears. If it doesn't, two and a half hours wasted. Yeah, probably. I make good decisions, good decisions, I make good decisions. I ended the day by drilling a bunch of holes into the dumpster so I could bolt the skateboards directly to the bottom. Drill the holes, hard cut, to tomorrow. Alright, so it's the next day, and now I'm going to see if I can connect the boards to the dumpster. Begin. It ended up working pretty well. Now it's time for steering. The thought is I connect this to both of the wheels and then push it this way, wheels turn, push it that way, wheels turn. Essentially making it steer like a wagon, but you know, it's never as easy as I want it to be. So I did a little more cutting, a little more welding, bada bing, bada boom, we got a wagon, kind of. I'm going to turn this into a steering wheel. This doesn't work. Oh, what if I put two on the sides and kind of... The weird steering rods worked much better than I thought, and even got going pretty fast. The plan was to drive my dumpster to a sunrise lookout point when I was done camping. I also like the idea of being able to drive away so I don't get caught, you know, like my guy Steve Wallace. But, would it still move like this when I add 400 pounds of steel? There's only one way to find out, y'all. This is the base, just cut off the corners so it can fit inside the dumpster. I'm also going to cut out this, so it can almost be like a trap door situation for the steering. Ahhh. Steering mistake. Oh wait, I want to go to bed now. Night, night. It's time to attach the sides. They're so heavy. I think I'm going to try and like clamp them first. And then... I looked at my face in a while. Cooked. It's a door! Hinges are way harder than I thought they would be. It took a long time, but I mean, right? For the door handle, if you were thinking I was going to do some big knobby door handle thingy-majig, think again. Steve Wallace would never do that. Why? Because we need it to be stealth. We also need it to be secure, which is why we're going with this puppy. I don't know what it is about having a key to a dumpster, but... Pretty exciting. Did you see that? So deeply satisfying. Zoom in, please. A locking key. Right? What is that? That's nice, huh? Boom! Welcome to my crib! Oh, just kidding. Then I primed it and then painted it blue because a lot of dumpsters are blue. Pretty good. $25 Facebook Marketplace carpet that I am about to cut to fit to the floor of the dumpster. Before I laid down the carpet, I mounted a TV, I mounted some sconces. It was really starting to come together. And then for the walls, I've chosen this very cozy flannel fabric. I'm a little worried that it's just going to look like I put up blankets on the wall. Doesn't look great at all, but it will. But I wasn't really sure how quite yet, so I moved on to the ceiling, which I also couldn't figure out. That's when I'm like, whatever, I'm just going to do my favorite part, the stickers. Every dumpster around here has four stickers on the front, so I photoshopped my own. At first glance, they look like exact replicas until you look a little closer. Caution, keep off emotional baggage inside as well as hot trash juice. Only stand on this if there's a crowd of people chanting for you. No parking, do not block container unless you want to hear a grown man moan. Uh, help me, I guess? There's a 32-year-old dude sleeping inside that has never been in a fight, so don't swing. Dumpster? I hardly know her. Waste management company. If you're thinking about calling, don't do it. Whatever you do. The delivery the next day was truly the cherry on top, if that cherry was 50 pounds of molded plastic. Ho ho ho ho! This was actually cheaper than if I would have built the lid myself. And I think it really, really sells it. Ha ha ha ha! Sick. What I have noticed about graffiti in general is a lot of people use four letters. I have no idea why, but it seems to be this trend with tags, so I'm gonna do four letters. W-A-L-Z. For the one and only Steve Wallace. I'm gonna be honest, I've practiced this like 30 times in my office. W-A-L... It looks pretty good! I played football all throughout my childhood, and my first number ever was 26, I was a running back. And then I ended my high school football career as a wide receiver with the number 80, so... 2680 will be this dumpster's unique four-digit ID, because every dumpster I found in L.A. had one. Also, every single dumpster had graffiti on it. Ha ha, cool, dude! That's awesome! The graffiti's so fun. I also needed to kind of beat up the dumpster to make it look realistic, which felt really weird. After spending so much time building it. Now it's time for security cameras. These are very important because they won't only be my eyes when I'm driving the dumpster, but they'll also be my eyes when I'm sleeping inside the dumpster. These cameras will all be camouflaged eventually, but first, I have to see if they work. Yeah! Front camera, back camera, right camera, and left. It's pretty dark in here, huh? This is a pizza box from my dinner the other night that I will be attempting to use as a trap door from the top to the bottom. I like the idea of having a skylight, as well as an emergency exit if I need to pop my head out for some reason. Part of me did wonder if adding a way in might be asking for trouble. I'll be fine. A secret pizza box entrance is awesome. I built a frame for the box, cut a hole in the ceiling, and voila! I love my job. Also, this is the closest I've ever been to hitting a million subscribers, so if you've enjoyed the video so far, please consider subscribing. Thank you for everyone who watches these videos and allows me to do dumb stuff like this. Like, true, true gift. So now that the skylight's done and the cameras are mounted, it's time to get a little trashy. You thought I said a better word. Rewind. Guacamole! I didn't. I ended up hiding the surveillance cameras inside the trash bags, which was just deeply satisfying for me. Also, this thing gets very hot. I bought this little fan and this because we're gonna funnel some air from the outside to the inside. What's this instrument called? And now that I had my DIY AC unit as well as this very scary-looking hospital cot, it was time to take a step back and finally look at this thing. Yes! With the outside and the inside finally done, only one question remained. Would it still drive after adding 430 pounds to the frame? There was only one way to find out. I held onto both skateboard throttles while also holding onto both of the steering rods. With my 360 camera sticking out of the ceiling, I tried my best to prepare for the reality that these little boards may not be able to push a dumpster. But somehow, it started to work! Was I going fast? That's not important. What's important was that I was one step closer to driving my dumpster to a sunrise lookout point at the beach. If you were curious what it was like driving only using a screen... I mean, we're moving, but... Yeah, visibility is, I mean, it's bad. Pizza vision was definitely better, and now that I knew this thing could drive, it meant it was time for my next thing, finding the perfect camping spot. Scout day number two. I thought I found one the other day. Didn't. If Steve Wallace has taught me one thing, it's you have to find a perfect spot. There's also, like, this. Or in there. Here. There. I needed a spot with heavy foot traffic, but also somewhere not directly in front of a business. After a lot of wondering, I finally found it. This could actually be really good. Right, right here. Me and my trash guys. It also just happened to be trash day, which was super helpful, because I was able to see exactly what the sanitation workers were. If we were going to pull off rolling out a full dumpster in the middle of the day, we had to at least look the part. This is my friend Tom, and in this moment, he has absolutely no idea why he is here. I see a trailer. Or why we're both wearing high-vis vests. Yes, dude. I guess I could have told him why I needed his help, but this sounded more fun. How'd the show go last night? The show was incredible. Yeah? It was, like, 1,500 people. Oh my gosh! Yeah, crazy. Tom is in this hilarious comedy band called the Wolves of Glendale, so the hope was that if anyone could see the comedy in this weird situation, it would be him. Okay, I think I'm just going to show you now. He made a dumpster. Wait, is this it? Like, oh, this is like a normal-looking dumpster, right? Right? No way! I'm going to go sleep out on the Venice boardwalk. I need someone to, like, push me out. On the boardwalk? Oh my- oh, so we're going to have to dress up? This is so crazy. Can we get in? Yeah, yeah. This is like a temperature. Does the TV work? Yes, I may have, like, plugged too many things into the power bank. Oh, oh, oh, oh, dude, dude! What? Fire! What do you need? Fire! These hoodies are fire! And without Shopify selling them, it would have been a literal dumpster fire. Nice, dude. Shopify's your all-in-one hub for managing and growing your business. Whether you're selling online or in person. I launched the hoodie, as you know, this year. The launch went so much better than I thought it would. And honestly, doing it with Shopify made it so much easier. And it went so good, in fact, that I'm going to list off my favorite parts about Shopify right now. Number one. I was able to customize my Shopify site, matching the gradient that I use in my banner on YouTube, in, like, seconds. Crazy. I love gradients. Sue me. Number two. I love how Shopify adds custom product buttons to the YouTube page. It's, like, one of my favorite parts about using Shopify. They're just the cutest little buttons. Cute buttons. Number three. I love that Shopify also allows me to sell my hoodies in real life. I could literally sell them out of this dumpster if I wanted to, using Shopify point of sale. Setting up shop like this in a sketchy back alley is now even easier with Tap to Pay for Android. So, take a photo of this QR code and go to Shopify.com slash PrestonGoes to start your free trial today. The dumpster had officially made it to the beach, which could only mean one thing. It's game day, folks. Step one. Get the dumpster to the location I scouted the day before. Step two. Sleep inside overnight without getting caught. That's very important. And step three. I haven't really seen it out of the driveway. Into the wheels? Yeah, the electric skateboard wheels are very, very obvious. Yeah, but if you didn't know, I've never paid attention to a dumpster. The most obvious thing to me is the handle. Alright, we're leaving. Hopefully gonna find a spot for all of this. The first tree we turned on. Perfect spot. What are the odds of that happening? And it felt like our luck continued because by the time we got back, the dumpster was still there and someone left us some treats. These are not my bananas. It worked. It's perfect. It worked. This is a testament to you, dude. Real dumpster. Those bananas gave me a lot of confidence, and as we got the dumpster ready to move to its final resting place, I was convinced nothing was going to go wrong. Okay, so bad news. The wheel is definitely broken. Uh, yep. Spoke too soon. Now that I'm editing, it's very clear that all of my problems link back to this moment right here. That is the sound of irreversible damage. After realizing that, we moved the dumpster really slowly, but quickly realized that the bend in the wheel completely messed up the steering. The only reason it was turning at all was because of the wagon's steering wheel, so as long as that didn't break... It ripped right off. Okay. Not good. So after that broke, I try aggressively pulling the dumpster in the right direction. That didn't really work. So we begin lifting the 700-pound dumpster into a five-point turn, but still can't really push it more than a few feet without the wheel caving in, and then after all of that, I begin slowly unraveling. Talk to me, buddy. Ah, the dumpsters. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. I think Tom decided to give me another second to myself. Yep. I decided to go on a walk because I started losing my mind because the wheel broke, the steering broke, and it's still not in the location it's supposed to be. I don't know if it can drive anymore. I don't know if it can even get to the spot. I think we're going to go back. I'm going to get inside, and you're going to try your best to push me, and I hope we can make that turn, and I hope no one says anything, and then you just deuce out. You leave me. I'm out. And dumpster, I hardly know her. We then walk down the boardwalk to 7-Eleven for me to grab a water. There are so many people, and then once we get back to the dumpster, we see this guy going through it. At first, I kind of loved it and decided I would join him to see what he was doing. As I got closer, I realized he was ripping out the trash bags that I had glued down, so I look back at Tom like, I don't know what to do. Then proceed to have the most awkward conversation with him, explaining how I own this dumpster. It's like, what does that even mean? He just kind of looks at me with this very confused face, but he thankfully left without taking anything. And he started opening up all the stuff. No way, dude. He didn't see anything inside. I thought you were going to show him the piece of box. I thought about it, but still, no. I don't know why, but something about the fact that he didn't find his way in gave me this new wave of confidence that I would be able to survive the night without getting caught. I just have to get there first. Preston, you're a lunatic, and I love you. Good luck, dude. I said goodbye. I also turned on my two sconces and picked up my steering rods, completely unsure if they'd be any help at this point. Tom also got into position and prepared our route. The plan was for him to push me down the sidewalk and onto the boardwalk to my final position, but the big question mark was this left-hand turn. Which way do you want me? Left. Left? I basically only had control of the right wheel, which made a subtle left turn transform into a sharp one, getting us stuck in the curb, forcing Tom to push us backwards and try again. So maybe you get on the red curb and push. After a lot of effort from Tom and very little from me, we gave it another go. All I kept thinking was if something does go wrong and this thing gets stuck here, I'm going to have to bring my tools back and take this thing apart to get it out of here. We start approaching the left-hand turn, and somehow we clear it. Unbelievable. I can see the position in sight. All we have to do now is stick the landing. It's amazing. Really? That was so much harder than I ever thought it would be. I don't know if you can see him in the back of the shot or not. This is essentially Times Square of LA. There are tons and tons and tons of people walking by that have no idea. There were a couple people that stood near it for a while. No one has any idea. Look at this. It's just a dumpster, dude. I don't have the courage to do this. Because of that, I got too little care package. Let's go drop it off. So I thought Tom had already left, so when I heard the pizza box opening, I was terrified and then quickly relieved when I realized it was Tom. But it also became very clear in this moment that if I do get caught tonight, it'll be because of that pizza box. I didn't know if you were going to be able to see me on the camera or not, I just assumed you would see me walk up. I totally missed it. I'm sorry if I startled you. It was amazing. Waving to you through the screen. I'm waving back. There we go. You just look like a crazy person waving to a dumpster. The sun was setting and the true journey was about to begin. Before Tom left, he stuck this mini spy camera to a light pole and the only thing left for me to do was survive the night. I used the power bank under my bed to turn on the air conditioning. It was amazing. And from here on out, it was all eyes on the cameras. I'd be watching like a hawk and if anyone got remotely close to this dumpster, you know, I didn't really have a plan for that. Some dude just threw his beer can right above me. I saw him approaching and he was drinking his beer and then he just chopped it. I mean, I've gone full stealth. I've gone full stealth. I can't stop watching the security cameras. Something could happen at any second. Some guy. AC's off. Oh my gosh. Did the guy rip out the fan? If you look closely, you'll see this guy in the hat holding what seems to be a white plastic bag. As he approaches the dumpster, he takes the plastic bag and somehow shoves it directly into the blade of the fan, completely frying the motor. To shove trash into something this small at walking speed is extremely impressive to me. But in the moment, the fan is no longer on. I had zero clue what just happened and that was okay because I really started enjoying my swampy dumpster experience. And as time passed, I completely let it go. I don't understand. Even if he just stuck his finger in the moving fan, why would that... I think the pool of lower back sweat combined with people watching actually helped me come up with a new plan. I'm waiting for traffic to slow down so I can make my way outside, fix the AC, and then pee and then make my dinner. Until then, I stare. Little did I know, I was about to have another unexpected visitor. So this guy pulls up next to the dumpster because he has spotted the electric skateboards. At this point, I don't actually know he's on a bike because the only angle I've seen of him was this one. So I'm only thinking one thing when I hear this sound. I'm gonna die. This is how it ends. Turns out his bike fell over, he wasn't braking in. After that, some guys with guitars show up, he fist bumps them, they bicycle away. And that's when he notices me. And I notice him. And then I notice him noticing me and naturally begin asking myself... Why didn't I hide those skateboards better? Why didn't you? Because the driveway was really near, uh, whatever, I surrender. He left. Dude, that was so scary. That was so scary. It's 9-0-8, like, we haven't even started. Two things I want to do, eat dinner, get my fan working, and pee. I didn't think about peeing. I probably could have made a urinal. I guess I could lift up the hatch. I can't lift up the hatch. Because the whole challenge rides on me not being seen, I kind of just waited around for the boardwalk to clear, but it was taking forever. 10-23, I guess I'm just gonna keep waiting and then eventually go outside. Pee and fix the fan. Until then, welcome to dinner. Oh, Preston, what's on the menu, you're asking? A crowd favorite, the yellow curry. I know what you're thinking. What? Yellow curry? Freeze dried? Camping? It doesn't make sense. But then you eat it. Also, big regret on the height of the ceiling. I really should have made this taller. Preston, you need hot water for this. All right, dinner is served. This is awesome. As I eat my dinner, I'm watching this couple fight across the boardwalk. I'm not gonna say there wasn't yelling, but these two really resolved things in what seemed like a pretty healthy way. Hugged it out, walked it off. It's 11-16. I don't know how long I can hold my pee, but at this point, it honestly feels like a western standoff. I'm waiting for this group of people that's hanging out in the gazebo by the sand to leave. That gazebo is directly in front of the back door. Which means I have to wait long. Oh my gosh, are they leaving? Are they leaving? I think they're leaving. They're gonna leave eventually. Right? Why did I make that sound? I've never made that sound. Not a little crowd. Well, I guess I've been caught. I mean, at this point, I should go pee. Right? After all of that work, I had so much fun. I had somehow been caught by what seemed to be some pretty understanding guys. And now, all I wanted to do was drive this thing to catch the sunrise. But at this point, was it even possible? I had scoped out a spot near the ocean the day before. It was a solid 45-minute walk away, so my plan was to get some sleep, then pray Ms. Dumpy could somehow wobble her way there. Oh, that's why. Infrared's lighting up. That's why you can see it so well. That's why the guy was like, cameras. The fans. No way. This is the reason I've been so hot. Makes sense, right? You're just walking by, shoved in there. So funny. Gonna be a hot night of sleep. I'm in here. Yeah, sorry, man. Feels better to tell people what's going on now. Feels really nice, actually. I guess I'll see you in the morning. I think it's morning. Smells like curry. Sleep was pretty decent, you know? Until I was awoken by someone ripping the cameras out of the dumpster. That was terrifying. I found the cameras right after I walked out this morning. People don't like the cameras. I kind of get it. I feel pretty satisfied with this whole thing, but there's a lookout point over there that I wanted to watch the sunrise. And I wanted to drive there. I guess I could try. As long as I didn't take any big hits, I figured I had a solid 10% chance of making it, which honestly felt generous. At this point, the steering was completely toast, and I was kind of surprised I made it this far. That may be all I got. What did I make that sound? I've never made that sound. Was that a little crowd?