Post by smshogun on Dec 27, 2015 22:59:09 GMT -5
Cotgrave had been hit with a spate of pikey attacks where they were coming onto site stealing non ferrous metals and of course electric shops were a prime target with cables, pummels, connecting pins etc and Cotgrave electric shop was quite exposed and accessible with good roads and an easy access round most of the site. John Burt was outside with Jewson Jim Marrs moving panels and switchgear around as it was to be reconditioned and Jim wasn't very tall and suffered "little man syndrome" where he liked barking at people and playing the hard man, which of course he wasn't.
John was on the fork lift when an Escort van known to be pikies came from round the back of the electric shop and had to stop because John was blocking the road and as I walked past he asked what he should do, Jewson ran to his office to call the police (usual cowardly actions) so I told John to drop his panel and reverse out and come face to face with the van which he did, I told him to raise his forks which he did, then I reached inside and hit the throttle pedal and pushed it down to the floor, with these hydrostatic transmissions there was a pause then they lurched forwards which it did and the forks went straight through the front of the van and trashed the radiator. He reversed up and the van shot off and the police caught it as the engine seized just as it got off site.
This vehicle was the recon vehicle which identified where all the non ferrous was and everyone was made aware there would be a larger vehicle coming in the next few days to steal it as this is how they operated. Jim had the piss taken out of him for the rest of the shift for running off despite all his big talk and sure enough the next day a Transit pick up arrived and was loitering, at the rear of the electric shop to one side was the fitting shop steel storage area and I had a load delivered which I wanted to collect and cut up. With several men there Jim decided to be brave and was doing his usual shouting as several men ran towards the pick up and he ran towards it making sure he was at the back of course then he tripped and fell into the back of the pick up and grabbed the tailgate to stop himself falling over, as he did the pick up took off with Jewson Jim hanging onto the tailgate and instead of letting go he hung on. In those days we had the external, steel toecaps and all we could see was two lines in the road from his toecaps, as we went round the corner the pick up went alongside the electric shop, turned right and up the longish road past the power house, first aid room, and control room with Jewson Jim still hanging on and two lines still going up the road, at the control room you had to turn left which meant slowing down as it was a 90 degree left and the road was narrow; instead of letting go he still hung on, we followed his tramlines right up to the security office where they had to stop and he let go.
As we turned the corner and looked along towards the security office/weighbridge we saw him sat there trying to get his boots off and as he did he was putting his feet into puddles to cool them down, the heat from his dragging toecaps had melted part of his boot soles and all we could do was stand there in fits of laughter.