This is the moment a furious homeowner confronts a police officer for ‘littering’ after he was caught on camera throwing his sandwich crusts out of a patrol car.
Video footage from a house in West Oxfordshire shows the marked Thames Valley Police car pulling up to the side of the road – before the passenger-side door opens and an officer then appears to discard something on the grassy verge.
Moments later, in a video later posted to TikTok, the homeowner steps outside to demand that the fresh-faced officer picks up his litter – which turns out to be a pair of uneaten sandwich crusts.
Despite being caught in the act on CCTV, the young policeman initially tries to deny throwing any litter as he claims: ‘No, I haven’t thrown any rubbish.’
In an exchange that has divided social media users, the cameraman then tells the officer to ‘pick the f****** thing up’, adding: ‘Who the hell do you think you are?’
The officer initially denies littering, telling the man filming: ‘I haven’t thrown any rubbish. That’s actually just sandwich crusts’
CCTV appears to show the officer discarding the crusts as he opens his door at the roadside (circled)
But the cameraman turns the air blue as he tells the officer: ‘Pick the f****** crust up and take it with you’
The clip, believed to have been filmed on Tuesday morning, starts with the man filming asking for the officer’s badge number and police station – which he confirms as being Witney, 10 miles west of Oxford.
The man filming asks the officer: ‘Have you got an excuse why you pulled up outside my house and threw rubbish out your car? Is there a reason for that?’
The officer denies littering, saying: ‘No, I haven’t thrown any rubbish. That’s actually just sandwich crusts.’
‘Oh right,’ the man filming replies, pointing his camera at a pair of sandwich crusts discarded on the grass verge.
He adds: ‘So you think it’s okay to pull up outside somebody else’s house and chuck your lunch or breakfast outside my house? That’s acceptable, is it?
‘If I’d done that in front of a police officer, right, or if a litter enforcement officer, right, I’d get nicked, wouldn’t I? Course I would. You’ve got no respect, have you?’
The officer then replies: ‘I can fully understand where you’re coming from and I appreciate that maybe it didn’t look so bad, and I’ll fully take that on board.
‘I will keep that in mind for the future.’
The person filming then paints the air blue, retorting: ‘Pick the f****** crust up and take it with you…I ain’t moving until you f****** do it.
‘It’s my house, and you just discard your food on the side of the road, right, without any thought.’
The officer’s colleague then interjects that the roadside doesn’t constitute part of the property of the person filming.
The cameraman fires back: ‘It doesn’t matter, it doesn’t – oh so it’s okay, is it? It’s public property, so that makes it even worse, doesn’t it?
‘I’ll be making a complaint…about him. Who do you think you are? Do you think the police are so above the little man that you can get away with that?’
As the officer who dropped the crusts tries to say he’ll pick up the rubbish, the resident adds: ‘Pick it up. Pick it up. Pick it up then.’
And as the policeman asks him to stop shouting, he says : ‘I’ll shout at what I want – there’s no law against it, is there?’
The offending sandwich crusts can be seen on the grass verge next to the door of the police car
The officer then agrees to pick up the crusts, asking the cameraman not to shout at him
The car then leaves as the man filming says: ‘Move along. You’re dismissed. Go away’
The resident then steps back to his own driveway and shouts: ‘Alright. Now pick the f****** thing up. Now I’m on private property. Pick it up.
‘How dare you come to somebody’s house and discard your food, in front of their house, even whether it’s a public property or not. Who the hell do you think you are? Pick it up. Now.’
The officer then pleads: ‘I will do. Will you please stop shouting at me like that? I don’t think that’s quite respectful.’
‘I don’t think it’s respectful you discard your food outside my house,’ the homeowner fires back. ‘Pick it up.’
‘I’m going to, if you leave me alone. Okay?’ the officer says, before picking up the crusts.’
The video ends with the cameraman: ‘Move along. You’re dismissed. Go away. Don’t chuck food outside your car again.’
The original video, tagged #policecorruption and #norespect, has picked up almost 500,000 views on TikTok, while re-posts have accumulated at least another 2million.
Viewers were split on whether the man filming was justified in his approach.
One said: ‘Wow it was a crust for the birds. Ya can tell who was curtain twitching.’
A second wrote: ‘Aww tbf (to be fair) he’s young guy and the birds will eat the bread no harm done.’
A third added: ‘I throw crust all the time for the birds lol I feel bad for the young fella.’
TikTok users were split on whether the man’s approach to the officer’s ‘littering’ was justified
But another user said: ‘Good for you mate ! Woody thinks he can do what he wants coz the uniform double standards.’
And a fifth added: ‘No it’s okay for them to litter but we were to do it that’s an £80 on the spot fine.’
The author of the video later admitted that he could have approached the situation more tactfully.
Responding to a comment that said he ‘let himself down’ with the way he spoke to the officers, the cameraman said: ‘your right, I did, I lost it.
‘I am not happy about it but the arrogance of it pushed all the buttons.’
Littering is a criminal offence under the Environmental Protection Act 1990, punishable by a fixed penalty notice of up to £150, which can be increased to a fine of £2,500 if not paid within 28 days.
Some littering offences have shocked those who received them – including a Kent nurse who was handed a £100 fine after feeding some pieces of bread to ducks at the riverside.
Dementia nurse Susan Watson, 68, said she was confronted by an enforcement officer waving an ’18-inch long’ ticket, who went on to suggest that what she did could be construed as flytipping.
Under plans announced by the government earlier this year, fines for littering are set to increase more than threefold to a maximum of £500 under a new crackdown on anti-social behaviour.
Thames Valley Police has been contacted for comment.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Dailymail.co.uk
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