There was cold comfort for householders in a residential street of east London after fly-tippers brazenly shoved a large upright fridge off the back of a truck late on Tuesday night.
Despite extraordinary footage showing a pair of hooded men pushing the hefty commercial appliance into the road before making a hasty getaway, the police and local council have shown limited enthusiasm to address the incident.
According to Colin Aylward, a local resident whose doorbell camera captured the scene outside his home in Dagenham, it is not the first time flagrant fly-tipping has occurred on the road.
‘Both the council and the police don’t want to know,’ said the 52-year-old, who immediately reported the matter.
‘People are always dumping stuff here, all the time.
‘The fridge was dumped at 11.52pm. I heard a bang and thought it was fireworks. They were still out there, and I saw them drive off.
‘I spoke to my neighbour and she said [the fridge] came from a kebab shop on Roman Road.
‘I reported it to police, but they said they weren’t going to do anything.’
Footage shows the moment a large commercial fridge is fly-tipped on a residential street in Dagenham, East London, late on Tuesday evening
Alerted to the situation by Colin Aylward, a local resident, council workers arrived on the scene about an hour later, but only moved the fridge out of the road rather than taking it away
The fridge, which locals believe may have come from a nearby kebab shop, left a pile of shattered glass on the pavement that was cleared away by the council workers
Two council workers who arrived on the scene just over an hour later appeared similarly indifferent about the situation.
Footage shows the two men simply rolling the fridge out of the road and on to a nearby patch of grass before exchanging a fist bump.
‘About one o’clock in the morning, two council workers came – but they just rolled it along,’ said Mr Aylward, who revealed that police had since contacted him to say they would not be investigating the incident any further.
‘They rolled it on to the grass, swept up the glass and left it there.’
The following morning, Mr Aylward’s cameras captured footage of two men loading the fridge into the back of a red van, presumably for scrap metal.
He compared the men to the Jawas, the diminutive, robed Star Wars creatures who search for discarded metals on the planet Tatooine.
Footage captured by cameras on Colin Aylward’s property showed two men loading the discarded appliance into the back of a van, apparently for scrap metal
Another video, captured by Colin Aylward’s cameras in 2020, shows a white van driving down the same road as rubbish spills out of its open doors
Another video, shot in 2020, shows a white van driving down the same road as rubbish spills out of its open doors.
Mr Aylward, whose family have lived on the road for generations, said the area has deteriorated in recent years.
‘It was lovely in the 80s, when I was a kid,’ he said. ‘It has turned into an absolute s***hole. It’s just filth. No one cares.’
Barking and Dagenham Council was approached for comment.