Get off my land! Moment farmer uses a DIGGER to flip vehicle over that’s blocking his gate – while its irate driver can only film on his phone
- The tiny silver hatchback was scooped up by the telehandler and flipped over
- Farmer driver ignored the angry pleas for him to stop and barged it out of field
- Do you know the tractor or the motorist? E-mail: dan.sales@mailonline.co.uk
A farmer destroyed a car with his digger after its owner left it parked in front of a gate to his land – with police called to the scene to deal with the aftermath.
In a video posted to social media by Elliott Johnson, he claims the tiny silver hatchback that is scooped up and flipped over onto its side is his ‘courtesy car’
But it is currently not clear whether the shirtless man filmed remonstrating with the farmer is the same man who put up the footage.
It shows a shirtless onlooker – believed to be the motor’s driver – trying to remonstrate with the farmer who jut continued to drive straight into his ‘courtesy car’ and toss it in the air using spikes on the front of his digger.
The farmer, who is based in Barnard Castle, Co Durham, ignored the angry pleas for him to stop and barged it out of his field.
Incredibly he looked to see if any other traffic was coming before pushing it down the country lane. He appeared to knocked the car driver to the ground as he swung back round to return to his farm, leaving the road littered with glass and debris.
A source told MailOnline of the farmer: ‘The lads had parked their car onto his drive.
‘He asked them to move but they didn’t seem to want to obey.
‘He had no choice but to take matters into his own hands and remove the ruffians from his property himself.’
Durham Constabulary confirmed they had been called out to the incident just after 5pm on Saturday.
Police were called to the scene in the aftermath of the run-in between farmer and driver
A shirtless man – believed to be the owner – tried to remonstrate with the digger driver
The car driver seemed to kick the farm machinery as the penny dropped as to the situation
The motorist was filming what was happened on his phone as the car was suddenly tipped up
A spokesman told MailOnline: ‘We were alerted to reports of an incident at a farm in the Teesdale area shortly after 5.45pm on June 5.
‘Officers attended the scene and an investigation into the circumstances is ongoing.’
It is understood that no arrests have been made over the shocking fracas.
Charlie Finnerty, of Rochdale, Gtr Mancs also posted the video yesterday on Sunday on Facebook and it has already racked up over one million views.
BBC Radio 2 host Jeremy Vine tweeted the video and said: ‘Driver has blocked farm gate with his car.
‘Motorist has smartphone. Farmer has forklift. Who’s gonna win this one?’
He said: ‘Wow, don’t park in front of farmer’s gates.’
However, the farmer’s actions divided opinions.
The tiny silver hatchback was scooped up by the telehandler and flipped over in the video
The car was tumbled down the street with the farm machinery as the incident unfolded
The driver seemed to be in utter disbelief as the farm machine came to a stop after the lift
The lifter driver then calmly went back to the land, leaving the car in the middle of the road
Mary Harris joked: ‘I love the way the farmer looks right to check no oncoming vehicles before pulling out.’
Mike Hillen said: ‘There was an easier solution to this, farmer should have chained and padlocked his gate closed.
‘Stopping the car from leaving then waited for car owner to knock on his door, he could of then charged him whatever amount to open the gate.
‘No court, no lawyer bills.’
Thomas Williams added: ‘As satisfying as it is to see someone who is clearly pondlife get his just desserts.
‘This is definitely criminal damage and perhaps even GBH when he hits him with the vehicle.’
But one cyclist – called Hannah – said: ‘I fully condone this.
‘Well done farmer for getting rid of this car in front of his gate.’