UK: Builder forces gipsies off his land... by digging a moat around their camp

The Daily Mail (U.K.) ^ | November 26, 2008

[Stoat]

First he encircled them with an 8ft metal fence. And when that failed to move the gipsy camp off his land, he dug a moat.

Builder Francis Shiner resorted to the measures when two gipsy families set up home on the disused car park of a building site in Bedford.

He asked them to move but they didn't. So he went on the offensive and managed to evict them within 48 hours.

Mr Shiner said the gipsies were hindering work on the site owned by Bedford construction company SDC construction and action had to be taken.

He said: 'We went to speak to them and asked them to leave because we intended starting development work. They refused and said they would go the next day.'

To make clear how determined he was, his workers surrounded them with 20 panels of 8ft-high metal fencing but left a 5ft gap for them to leave through.

'We immediately decided to secure the site and left them a small gap so that they could go by 9am the next day, but they were still there in the morning,' said Mr Shiner.

That morning they saw that the gipsies had even made use of the fencing by hanging their washing from it.

In response, Mr Shiner sent in a digger to create a 4ft deep moat around the outside of the fencing, telling the families to move or be trapped. He also issued a writ.

 

[Stoat]

My apologies for posting such a severely edited article...this was done in order to remain in compliance with Free Republic rules pertaining to the posting of articles from The Daily Mail.  Please click on the main article link to read the full story.

 

Looking out from his caravan, one of the gipsies watches the builders dig a moat around their camp

 

First the builders put up 20 panels of 8ft high metal fencing to encourage the gipsies to move. When they didn't, they called in the digger to make a moat

 

The gipsy site before the moat was dug

************************************************

Related:

Britain's No1 gipsy site KO'd (Over 1000 Travellers evicted after local villagers' protests)

[Stoat]

A police spokesman for Bedfordshire police said they were not involved in the matter 'as common sense prevailed to resolve it peaceably'.

He said: 'This was not a matter for us as it didn't escalate into a breach of the peace.
 

'It is up to landowners to seek legal advice to remove people who move onto their land. It is a civil matter.

'Landowners are also within their rights to build a barricade on their land. If they had trapped the travellers on site, they would not have broken the law.'

[ClearCase_guy]

They could have been trapped by a 4 ft moat! Hey, I’ve got an idea for how we can secure our southern border ...

[Jaxter]

Well, there's always napalm..

[Stoat]

They could have been trapped by a 4 ft moat! Hey, I’ve got an idea for how we can secure our southern border ...

I'm sure that our friend Backhoe would be delighted to submit a bid for digging a moat along the entire southern border of the United States   :-)

[Travis T. OJustice]

I love the smell of napalm in the morning.

[Travis T. OJustice]

Never piss off someone that owns a backhoe!

[OneWingedShark]

LOL - Good point.

[ZULU]

“I’m sure that our friend Backhoe “

Isn’t that Obama’s first name? Backhoe?

[Stoat]

Never piss off someone that owns a backhoe!

LMAO!

At least that person's truck was not treated quite as badly as this one:

You got a crush on my missus (boss crushed love rival's 4x4 with 13-ton excavator - PIX OF COURSE!)

 

[Daffynition]

[MathDoc]

What is happening to the world? Moats are back. Pirates are back (at far more than the usual rate). Even Socialism is back - with an Affirmative Action socialist whose vice president describes him as “articulate and bright and clean”. What else is going to return: the Crusades, the Plague, or both?

[Secret Agent Man]

Wonder if this is the only way Obama will let you own a truck very shortly?

[ClearCase_guy]

Isn’t that Obama’s first name? Backhoe?

Actually, you might notice that Michelle is usually about 3 paces behind Obama. Occasionally she tries to move up along side him, and then he says ...

[Stoat]

What else is going to return: the Crusades, the Plague, or both?

• Islamists frequently claim that the Crusades never ended....they are still fighting battles from hundreds of years ago (or more).
• Many scientists and epidemiologists have grave concerns that as various diseases, and the human body, change and become immune to modern medicines,  that we will one day soon experience massive worldwide epidemics and will have nothing that can stop their spread.
• During the 1960's, doctors were baffled by a variety of 'new' diseases that began appearing, particularly among hippies living in communes, until they realized that they were nothing new....they were diseases that had been eradicated hundreds of years previously with the advent of modern concepts of hygiene.  With the lack of hygiene in communes, the diseases reappeared.

[utherdoul]

anyone else reminded of that episode of king of the hill where they used a similar method to get the hippies off the national park?

[Incorrigible]

My relatives in Ireland recently told me that some tinkers had set up camp in the center of the island formed by a round-a-bout (traffic circle). They had to be paid over a million euro in order to get rid of them.

[Star Traveler]

On the other hand, that could simply be a secure parking spot... LOL...

[Ancesthntr]

Alligators, where are the alligators?

[50sDad]

Hippies!