An unlicensed company with Mafia ties threatened to take over the garbage business in Central City, Philadelphia. The time was March 1956. Two of mobster Harry Stromberg aka Nig Rosen's associates were responsible for the coercion of local businessmen. Before the encroachment the businesses had used independent carriers for as many as twenty-five years. Their stories of being coerced to join Atlas Rubbish & Salvage Inc., were published as an expose' in the Philadelphia Inquirer.