We all dig getting paid on time

"Knock knock" - "Who's there... AAAARGH!"

If you’re off to Liverpool any time soon, and were thinking of bagging yourself a budget overnight stay in a hotel, you might want to check they’re open. And not wide open.

An almost-completed new Travelodge in the city is a bit more open plan than intended after an irate digger driver trashed the reception area with his machinery this week, leaving the place notably more light and airy than was intended... and very badly damaged.

It appears that the aggrieved digger operator was taking his revenge on a sub-contractor of the construction firm for £600 he claimed he was owed. I suspect that this impetuous course of action will wind up costing the disgruntled digger dude notably more than that, although he is to be commended for some skillful driving – he had to get the mini-machine up the steps of the building before quite literally breaking, entering, then breaking some more.

He took his time over it too. One witness claimed the smash and bash lasted “a good 20 or 30 minutes”. Maybe he only stopped because it was time for a tea-break?

Jeremy Clarkson would be proud of the vehicular destruction. Come to think of it, he’s probably jotting the idea down in his notebook right now for the next series of The Grand Tour.

We’ve all been frustrated at work, and have silently visualised wreaking our revenge, but this guy has converted his imagined mayhem it to actual destruction. Watching the video of the incident online (there’s always one nowadays, isn’t there?) his red-mist moment did put other people in danger, so he doubtlessly will have the book thrown at him by the police.

However, a Go Fund Me page set up to help fund the chap’s lost wages, and potential legal fees, had reached nearly £5000 within 24 hours of being set up. Named on the page only as John, the man is being hailed as something of a hero for people in the building trade, by highlighting the problem of late payments.

As the description on the fundraising page suggests, “...this guy has helped many tradesmen and workers get paid on time and to stand up for themselves when it’s really needed”.

Unconfirmed reports later suggested that John actually had been paid, but didn’t check his bank account. Ooh. Awkward. I suspect popping in to apologise probably isn’t going to help much. Still, at least he won’t have to knock on the door.

This post first appeared as my "A wry look at the week" column, in The Mail, on Friday the 25th of January 2019... coincidentally 7 years to the day since I entered the Big Blogger competition that resulted in my writing for the paper. You can view the version used on their website here.

In case you haven't seen it, here's digger boy's trail of destruction:


What do you think? Hero, sticking it to The Man and making a stand, or angry idiot who put others in danger and has rendered himself unemployable?

(Tape Time: No 33, from October '82, featuring Selecter's "Too Much Pressure" on one side, and Noel Edmonds' "Noel's Funny Phone Calls" on the other. What can I say... I was 15.)