Awkward people!!

[nepia]

I like that one even more! The words 'petard' and 'hoisted' come to mind - excellent.

[mendiplogs]

Done a nice little site clearance today, four big conifers and a few sycamores, fella who has bought the site checked all tpos and conservation areas all clear!! But the angry neighbour up the road wasn't happy!! Walking round the site taking photos!! Busy bodies!!!!!

 

HI HAM your right mate busy bodies all right all you like to do is get on with the job mate then you get people like this :banghead::banghead::BoomSmilie_anim::dancing::dancing::beer:then off to the pub thanks jon

[NoRush]

I did a site clearance earlier this year with the instructions that all but 2 section of hedge were to be felled and chipped. Had already spoke to a neighbor when topping the site and guessed he would be a problem. Anyway started chain sawing got through a tank of fuel and went off to refuel. Came back to a very irate bloke claiming we were chopping his hedge down and he was going to "smash our heads in" for doing so. I pointed him in the direction of site manage (the one with the cleanest hi-vis). Turned out we were chopping his hedge down the site manager had got it wrong. He calmed down they came to an agreement he apologized to us and we got an extra days work .

[Rich Rule]

I have had melodramatic characters onsite lots of times. It seemed at least on e a week we would get a run in with someone. At that time most of the work we did was removals for insurance purposes and often the trees were owned by neighbour of our clients who were having problems with subsidence.

 

I have had people threatening me or the crew, bad language etc. In the past I have told them my 2 year old has a better vocabulary then them and that I am not interested in listening with their potty mouth running off! That usually gets them going proper. Take the moral high ground everytime. A slagging match is probably not going to resolve anything.

 

Another time I had a camp fella going mental at me for chopping the tree in the boundary down. It was his partners property and was affected by the tree, as was his boyfriends neighbours property. He wouldn't listen to reason and was so miffed as he had planted a load of bulbs in the border the previous weekend. He threatened to call the police and then started fumbling about in his pockets - so ever the gent, I offered to lend him my phone and even mentioned the number was 999 if he couldn't remember it!

[ArborClimber]

We had a beauty last winter. We do alot of work for the city council and enviromental dept, and we had one job felling and thinning about 30trees bordering a car park for some blocks of flats.

One chap comes out and asks if we could just "lop a tree down quick" thats hangs over his parking space. Politely i tell him that all the trees are noted and protected and we cant touch it unless we have contract to do so, and that he can call the council and once we get the go ahead, we would do it. He didnt like that...

 

Rather annoyed he trudged off. 15 minutes later he came out shouting and mouthing off for getting a bit of sawdust on his car.... yes, sawdust. Said he would call the police as it would cost him money to get it cleaned. I politely informed him that it his perfect right to do so. And then he cleared off.

 

Hour later the police arrived, they laughed considerably (german police are awesome), had a coffee with them, and said to call them personally if he gave us anymore trouble. He did, we called them, and he got placed in the police car and driven away for wasting police time and being abusive to an officer.

 

Highlight of the winter season i think

[oldwoodcutter]

The other saturday i was doing a site clearance in an old village that english heritage oversee half,and second home owners have the other half.

We were soon the focus of much pointing and head shaking,until a group of them formed at the entrance and 1 came over to me and asked what the hell we thought we were doing.

I simply said i think its going to be a new permanent travellers site,got the saw running again and ignored them til we'd finished and pulled away.

[Rich Rule]

I have told a couple of people in the past that we are clearing for a new Mcdonalds drive through.

[Stephen Blair]

I have so many confrontations since the very first day I started a saw in a built up area. I used to rack my brains thinking of the perfect reply but these folk are not interested in reason or logic, they just can't walk past and want to have a go.

My first real encounter came when we had a self seeded sycamore growing out a guys basement, this tree was easy 3' wide and about 70' high, tight against a big tenement, garden was about the size of a postage stamp and this new owner had been given permission and told by his insurance company to get it down.

I was a climber for a company, newly started and very excited about everything, we pull up and straight away cars need moved and a site marked out, that's all got nothing to do with me, I hit the ground running, chuck on my gear and happily start free climbing up said scabby maple, aiming for the top, as I pass the 3 rd floor, there's a guy sitting in his pants getting stoned, so I knock his window and say hi! He nearly jumps out his skin, I think it's hilarious and keep on going.

It takes me a few minutes to get an anchor and descend down, 1 of the boys passes me a saw and off we go, my first branch lands lovely slap down beside a car and it's alarm goes off, we think it's funny, next minute the whole close is out, men woman and children and they are going bonkers and have called the cops.

I sneak up a couple of limbs, pull my rope up and just enjoy the show.

There's no mobile phones about as it's 1998 and finally along comes the police.

They are trying to calm the folk down, the groundies are enjoying a fag and some juice and everyone has forgotten about me.

The police are getting no where, residents are going mad and starting to get abussive, then Mr Pant wearing stoner points up at me and starts calling me names, the police burst out laughing saying they didn't even see me, and Mrs Policewoman was very interested in the whole harness get up !

I come down, and start having a go at Pantman as I was younger and not my company I wasn't taking it.

So as I'm walking away, there is a Mark1 fiesta, and I tap the window where a tax disc should be, Mrs Policewoman asks who's car it is, you guessed it, Pantman!!

On the spot fine, lorry called to uplift car, neighbours all run away and leave him, we get a good drop zone!!

Take that Pantman:lol:

[Stephen Blair]

Also had a Nun go mad at me, and asks to speak to Stephen Blair, i say that's me, don't be ridiculous she says, your too young(23 at the time) so she goes inside and calls my mobile, a lot had happened since 1998, it was now 1999!

I take it out my pocket and answer it, she doesn't click it's me and starts going bush, then she comes to the window and I give her a big wave, that was the last I ever saw her!

[Stephen Blair]

Then there was the guy who threatened me in front of the planers, a complete psycho, I wasn't messing with this guy, a scary dude indeed.

We come back the next day and the sacred tree they wanted to save was wrapped with about 8 rolls of chicken wire up to 20', nailed on with bent over 4" nails, then wrapped in barbed wire with abusive signs hanging from it, I turned round, put the saws in the van and have never been back, too crazy for me!!!