It would have been cheaper for the bank to just let the old homeowner occupy it until they could afford the mortgage again, or refinance it into lower monthly payments for the old owner.

Actually the cans have fishing line attached to the top and a motor in the can that retracts the line. couple of my buddies and i did the same thing in college for an engineering class. the tought part is not accidentally tripping on the line when you walk by it and making sure to put enough arc on the toss to make it look real.

some of the shots you can see the can off track when it's about 3-4 feet away and then alter course and get "sucked" into the trash.