Scrap and junk car pickup in Robbins

Robbins is close. From our lot on 135th Street it’s a straight run east to Pulaski Road and then onto 137th Street, a trip of about two miles that takes four or five minutes without traffic.

A small village with a long history

Robbins covers about one and a half square miles in Bremen and Worth townships, with 4,629 residents at the 2020 Census and ZIP code 60472. It was incorporated in 1917, named for the developer Eugene S. Robbins, and was the first municipality in the North governed entirely by African-American officials. It was also home to Robbins Airport, described as the country’s first black-owned airport.

The village line touches Crestwood, Midlothian and Blue Island, and the county’s hazard plan also lists Alsip and Posen as neighbours.

Getting around Robbins

The main streets inside the village are Kedzie Avenue, Pulaski Road, 137th Street and Midlothian Turnpike. The Tri-State Tollway (I-294) passes through Robbins, but there are no exits in the village; the nearest I-294 and I-57 access is five to eight minutes away. Robbins has its own Metra station on the Rock Island District line, and Pace routes 359 and 385 run through.

For a tow truck that means local streets from Crestwood, not the expressway. It also means a few blocks need care: the village code bars trucks on streets posted by ordinance except for a one-block delivery or pickup (§ 14-79), so the driver plans the approach.

Houses, yards and flooding

Two thirds of Robbins homes are single-family detached houses, with about 22 percent in buildings of two or more units, according to 2020 to 2024 census estimates. About 59 percent of homes are owner-occupied. That points to driveway, side-yard and curbside pickups far more than parking lots.

Water is the local wrinkle. Cook County’s hazard mitigation plan says the three blocks east of Kedzie, toward Utica, between 137th and 139th Streets see overbank flooding in almost every rain or melt event, with urban flooding in most of the village during big storms. A car that sat in that water is often done. Flood damage ruins wiring and interiors, but the metal is still worth scrap value; see stripped, burned and flooded cars.

What Robbins says about junk cars

The village code is direct about it. Chapter 5, Article X treats an old, wrecked, stripped or junked car that’s not in safe operating condition and can’t run for ten days or more as abandoned, registered or not (§ 5-401). Keeping one unsheltered on a street or on public or private property for ten days or more is a nuisance (§ 5-402), and owners are expected to move it into an enclosed building or out of the village (§ 5-403). A separate article lets the village give seven days’ written notice and then tow at the owner’s cost (§ 14-243).

That’s a short timeline. If the car is dead and you don’t plan to fix it, a non-running car sale gets it out before the notice period ends. The inoperable car rules guide compares Robbins with nearby towns.

Titles and older family cars

A car that’s been in a Robbins driveway for years is sometimes still titled to a parent or grandparent. Illinois requires the scrap buyer to collect proof of ownership and two IDs from the seller, so sort out whose name is on the title before the pickup. Our page on scrapping a car without a title explains what counts.

Robbins sits right between our home village of Crestwood and Midlothian to the south, and we pick up in both.