The f ly-tippers caught in the act who said trying to stop them was racist
A FATHER who tried to stop two fly-tippers dumping a mattress in the street was called a racist by the men.
Craig Hardwick, 37, filmed the pair as they dragged the mattress towards a patch of grass near his home.
He broadcast the footage live on Facebook and could be heard saying: ‘Put it back in your ****ing car and get rid of it now. I’m recording you and sending it to the police.’
Mr Hardwick, from Walsall, continued recording as he interrocut gated the two men and repeatedly told them to take the bedding back to their house.
He told them: ‘I don’t want people dumping rubbish in ****ing street. You don’t dump rubbish in the middle of the street.’
The men, who he thought were Eastern European in origin, then point at Mr Hardwick and say: ‘You are racist.’ Mr Hardwick replies: ‘No I ain’t racist. Don’t play that card with me.’
He said in a post that he had directed them to a tip where they could dump the mattress legally.
Since posting the clip on Sunday, the video has been viewed more than 500,000 times and shared nearly 10,000 times. Mr Hardwick wrote alongside the video: ‘After I it off I told them where the tip was. Sorry about the language but this kind of thing makes me mad.
‘Unfortunately I see this sort of thing everywhere and it’s disgusting. Though I’ve never seen anything like a mattress.
‘It infuriated me when they said they were leaving it and I just had to do something.’ Mr Hardwick said he followed the men, who he believes live in a neighbouring street, until they carried the mattress down the road but is unsure what they did with it. Walsall Council, which spent up fly-tipped £426,000 waste, last year praised clearing Mr Hardwick for his public spiritedness. A spokesman said: ‘Our advice, if you witness fly tipping taking place, is to call 999. Fly tipping is a crime that carries heavy fines or a custodial sentence.’
‘This kind of thing makes me mad’