Somebody’s junk

Mike Sciacca

The tattered and torn cover of the Altemus’ edition of the Holy

Bible, some of its pages browned and brittle from age, sits among a

treasure trove in the Huntington Beach home garage of Ali Cetin.

This particular Bible, 111 years old and inscribed on an inside

page with the words, “For my dear Mother, Love Julia,” sits in the

midst of a few paintings, pieces of furniture and unusual pieces that

are stacked from floor to ceiling in the garage.

They are just some of the key “finds” discovered by Cetin while on

the job.

The 51-year-old Surf City resident is the founder of Huntington

Beach-based Junk Junk, which hauls items from homes, apartments,

condominiums and businesses.

“We go in and take out everything that is not a part of the

building,” Cetin said. “We save the junk nobody seems to want. We

clean out houses and apartments. Especially on ‘sold’ properties, we

go in and take out everything that is not a part of the building.

“It’s the same with apartments and condominiums. We also clean out

backyards, back porches and such from all kinds of junk and clutter.”

The idea of moving junk came to Cetin about 15 years ago, although

he has been in the hauling business for little more than a year.

He founded Video Warehouse in Huntington Beach 25 years ago, which

is now known as Al’s Electronics.

“I had hired a company to remove remodel debris for me a few years

back,” Cetin recalled. “I was very impressed with the way they came,

picked up all the debris, got paid and left. It seemed like a ‘fun’

job to do.

“What I liked about it was the fact that you had no inventory, no

shrinkage, no ordering, accounts payable, high insurance for theft

and such.”

Cetin said that when he started up Junk Junk, he wanted to “stand

out in the crowd” of haulers by setting standards that would make it

“better than the competition.”

Using one truck, Cetin has collected quite an interesting

assortment of “junk” pieces.

Some of his key finds have been antique fans and typewriters, old

coins, board games, swords and collectible dolls.

He even hauled away an abandoned painting from a Huntington Beach

apartment complex that was a self-portrait painted by the actor Eddie

Murphy.

As the saying goes, what is one man’s junk is another man’s

treasure.

“I am amazed at some of my finds,” he said. “Sometimes, I take

them directly to the Salvation Army or Goodwill here in Huntington

Beach. God has given me enough, and this is my way of giving

something back.”

Cetin works with homeowners, property managers, Realtors,

contractors and businesses.

The American Business Women’s Assn. has used Cetin’s finds in a

previous yard sale.

Cetin has filled up another garage -- “to the brim,” he said --

with items that will be put up for sale by the association at an

April yard sale.

“He was very generous to us, in our first yard sale,” said Dale

Case of the American Business Women’s Assn.

Case is the president of the Huntington Beach WaveCresters, a

local chapter of the association that was established last July.

“He really gets some great finds,” Case said. “The money we raise

from the April yard sale will benefit our scholarship fund for local

members and scholarships put out into the community.

“What Ali does for us, he does out of the kindness of his heart.”

Cetin has a passion for his work, and his motto reflects his

commitment to others.

“I call it, ‘win-win-win,’” he said. “First, I like helping

people. Second, not everything I collect is thrown away. The nicer

things are either donated to a needy family, or to charity. And the

third ‘win’ is that, by doing the second thing, we dump as little as

possible into our landfills, and that helps the environment.”

* MIKE SCIACCA covers sports and features. He can be reached at

(714) 965-7171 or by e-mail at [email protected].