This is the moment a furious motorist confronts two suspected fly-tippers he caught dumping a sofa at a national park beauty spot. Niall Howard, 32, has been hailed a hero for intervening and ordering the rogue couple he spotted unloading the furniture from a large white Mercedes van to take it back home with them.
The conservation worker was driving through the Peak District National Park on Monday to visit family in Meltham, West Yorkshire, when he spotted the pair who appeared to be dumping the sofa at the picturesque location. Niall blocked the pair in to a lay-by with his pick-up truck and challenged them, shouting: “what are you doing?” as he filmed them on his mobile phone. He said: “It’s a beautiful part of the world up in the countryside, I think there’s enough parts of this country that look a disgrace, and the countryside is something that, especially in West Yorkshire, is a part of the area we can be proud of.
“To see it being treated like a skip, it’s annoying – I’m a great believer in if you find somewhere you leave it as good as you find it or better, you don’t turn it in to a dustbin.”
Niall says the couple tried to protest that they were just selling the sofa on the lay-by, which is located near Wessenden Head Reservoir, something he believes is a lie.
He said: “I knew they were lying, nobody goes into the middle of the moors to sell a sofa – who does that?
“If you’re going to sell a sofa out the back of your van you don’t do it in the middle of the moors, so I didn’t believe him.
“I’d witnessed him launching it, so his c*** and b*** story – I knew he were trying to think of something on the spot.
“If that sofa was for sale, the way he threw it out the back of his van it wasn’t going to be in very good condition for anybody buying it.”
On social media, Niall was congratulated for stepping in.
One commenter said: “Finally, someone who stops to confront them. Well done Niall.”
Another added: “Absolute hero, I hate fly tippers so much.”
Niall said: “I think my problem is that I’m old school.
“No offence to the new generations coming through, but back in the day if you did something and it wasn’t right every body used to call you out on it.
“Today, people are more afraid of getting in trouble for trying to do the right thing.”
Niall has since reported the incident to the police.
West Yorkshire Police have been contacted for comment.