Victoria Police has backed down from its hard line against hard rubbish hunters after a man was arrested for taking a vacuum cleaner from a collection in Melbourne’s outer east.

The 58-year-old Lilydale man was taken into custody just after midnight for allegedly stealing the appliance from a hard rubbish pile on a nature strip in Kimberley Drive, Chirnside Park.

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A Victoria Police spokesman this morning said hard rubbish became the council’s property once it was placed on the nature strip and the man could be charged on summons with theft.

The council responsible for the collection, the Yarra Ranges City Council, had been unaware of the arrest until media reports.