This is the moment five heroic workmen confronted a gang of alleged fly-tippers they caught red-handed dumping rubbish on a quiet country lane.
Tree surgeon Callum Chase, 25, and brother Connor, 23, spotted three men unloading mattresses and chairs from a van as they drove home along a country road.
The brothers stopped and confronted the men who denied they were doing anything wrong.
The brothers, then joined by their boss and two other passing workmen, used their vans to box in the fly-tippers while they called the police.
During a tense, two-hour stand-off the men were able the persuade the suspect fly-tippers to load the mattresses and chairs back into their van.
Police officers arrived at the scene at Kensworth, Beds, on May 9 and took the details of the men and statements from the workmen.
Local council chiefs are now investigating with a view to taking possible legal action.
Today Callum told how he spotted three men removing mattresses and chairs from a van and placing the items into undergrowth.
Along with Frank, a plumber, who was driving behind them – they simultaneously turned their vehicles round to investigate.
Callum, Connor and Frank walked up to the three men who they claim “genuinely believed” weren’t doing anything wrong by dumping the items there.
Connor called their boss, Duncan Tomblin, who arrived with his van and blocked the three men in until the police arrived two hours later.
Callum, from Leighton Buzzard, Beds., said: “The first hour was almost a constant argument with the men, about why they couldn’t be fly-tipping and not realising at all why they were doing something wrong.
“We’d say, ‘no you are not allowed to do that’, and they’d reply, ‘But there is rubbish already here’ – there were beer bottles, bags, etc.
“They kept saying they didn’t do it all, only the mattresses and the chair.
“Then my brother Connor rang Duncan up – he doesn’t like fly-tippers. He would know a bit more about what to do.
“Meanwhile, one of the men, who was in the van, panicked, and started reversing, but my brother was leaning against the van to stop it.
“The younger man knew there wasn’t much choice, so shouted at the one in the van to stop him driving.
“Duncan turned up about ten to 15 minutes later – none of us wanted to walk away so he pulled up and parked his van straight behind theirs.”
After a while, the tree surgeons, Frank, and a fifth workmen who had been passing by entered into “peaceful negotiations” with the three men, and persuaded them to load the mattresses and chairs back into their van.
The three men got back into the van, which the tree surgeons think was hired, and sat inside until the police arrived.
Duncan, 44, said: “When the police turned up I thought they would seize the vehicle and arrest the three guys.
“I got really frustrated, as the police wouldn’t take their van away. If
