Livid Homeowners

[MuniciPAL]

today must have started off a little too nice i guess because as i find myself slaving brush into a BC1000 i am confronted by and extremely angry homeowner that proceeds to tell me that we messed his tree up and hes gonna shove me into the BC1000. he grabbed my arm and i immediately yelled "dont F'n touch me" and cocked my fists. he said " ill do it if i want" and proceeded to try once more. i backed up and said "settle the F down", "were outta here" . the trees were carolina poplars directly underneath 3 phases of 7200. im still in disbelief over the incident.
lets hear some stories guys, you have all been doing this longer than me.

 

[clearance]

today must have started off a little too nice i guess because as i find myself slaving brush into a BC1000 i am confronted by and extremely angry homeowner that proceeds to tell me that we messed his tree up and hes gonna shove me into the BC1000. he grabbed my arm and i immediately yelled "dont F'n touch me" and cocked my fists. he said " ill do it if i want" and proceeded to try once more. i backed up and said "settle the F down", "were outta here" . the trees were carolina poplars directly underneath 3 phases of 7200. im still in disbelief over the incident.
lets hear some stories guys, you have all been doing this longer than me.

I am all too familar with this kind of thing, been there, got the shirt. I take it as the trees were under an energized primary they were not on his property, actually on the municipal or other government road allowance?

 

[MuniciPAL]

technically it wasnt his property. the local utility owns 10 feet on both sides of their lines. i hope that clears up your inquiry. but we were trimming roadside residential trees. species specific minimum clearance while trimming residential. he should not have made a big stink about it, but he was going off the deep end

 

[Nailsbeats]

I tell ya what, when I am working (especially then) if you grab me be prepared to go for a ride. Unbelievable. I don't know how you held back even the second time, good for you. Leaves a guy confused. I haven't experienced that on the job, but have seen plenty of homeowners get pissy. Glad you were able to show restraint, physical contact is where I draw the line. Add on the verbal threat and that is an invitation, it's go time.

 

[RDT]

Can you say :censored: beating.

 

[MuniciPAL]

my partner in the bucket couldnt come down fast enough. he wanted a piece of the guy.
almost like clockwork i called my boss and informed him a homeowner was most likely going to call the 1800 # on our trucks. we have yet to recieve that phone call but i would imagine its on its way. its ####ty enough being buried in brush and hangers and have to literally fend off people.

 

[testlight]

I was feeding a chipper one time (just a ground laborer) and the land owner came out of his garage with a chainsaw. I kept my eye on him at first, then relaxed a little when it seemed like he knew what he was doing. Long story short the dude kept going into the house drink whiskey and come back out swinging his saw around getting more out of control as time went by. Long story short we took off before he hurt somebody or we hurt him first for putting us in danger.
Some people's kids....

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

When clearing residential primary customers often get angry. If we have good easements then we call the local sheriff and they come watch us to the work. Had one too many customers make death threats, some verbal... some waving shotguns.

 

[JS Landscaping]

You are a better man then me...if someone tried that on me, they woulda ended up with my logger boot on thier throat in a few seconds. That action by the homeowner, is unacceptable no matter who it is or what the circumstances, espcially around a wood chipper. I believe that could be classified as attempted murder if you think about it? Laid hands on you, and said he was gonna run you through the chipper.......You definatly have some patience, cause I know the second time he tried he woulda found out how hard and painful my logger boots can be. Also helps having quite a few years in martial arts.....high kick to the face with a steel toe could definatly do some damage.

 

[MuniciPAL]

the best part of the whole thing was when i had my fists cocked and i called him "sir" still. lol. i just didnt want to flip out and lose my job.

 

[clearance]

Here in this province, I will say, and I am probably going to be sorry (i.e. from Tom Dunlap or the like ratting me out), that the homeowner would probably be given a cheque for, and I kid you not, emotional suffering.

B.C. Hydro will bend over backwards to support the "customer" in pretty well every case, sometimes the Hydro guy in the first instance will back up the tree guy but not often, and if it goes upstairs, forget it.

It is disgusting, the way these culls (customers) are allowed to call us whatever they want, impede us, put themselves and others in danger, and are never told to leave us alone.

There are some good people at Hydro, I know, but it ain't the company it once was. No respect for the guys who do the work. And I mean the work, not shuffling paper.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

I've had it a number of times where I've been threatened, not big deal, gust walk away and call the higher authorities.

Why get bent out of shape when you know they cannot hurt you and you can hurt them? That is how it is most of the time with me, some one threatening to hurt me is a joke. It does not hurt my pride to laugh and ask what they are thinking

I'll tell ya, it is worse when they threaten with guns...

 

[Jlarnard]

Angriest homeowner;
I was pretty green, and my forman and I were clearing lines by a hotel. There
was 1 tree left, and the owner (my boss) shows up. He will remain un-named for his sake. He runs up to the tree saw already running (newbies.. this is a bad habit). Climbs up half way and notches the top. There was a residential cable tv line twisted up in this hemlock. Well he took out the cable. There was a Stanley Cup game on that night. Um you probably get the picture. I din't mention it was Sat. late afternoon. The guy was out there in just a matter of a minute and he was armed. Even had camo on. My boss ran and got in his truck leaving me and the forman to deal with it. I looked down that barrel for a good 30 seconds before he stormed off. We loaded up went to radio shack and patched his cable line. He was very nice after that.

 

[capetrees]

You can yell at me, stomp around and throw stuff. But I, like pal, am not in the best of moods slaving things into my own bc1000 and if you come up to me, grabbing me, threatening to throw me into the chipper, I will lay you out. No questions asked and certainly no second chance. And if you get up, my helper is bigger than me and WILL finish the job. I'm the nice one.

 

[Sunrise Guy]

If some guy grabbed me and gave a verbal threat about chipping me while my chipper was running, I would have pushed him off, grabbed my 38 and he would have been history, case closed. I have my CHG license and the guy threatened my life, so I acted within the letter of the law regarding deadly force. I applaud those with restraint. However, nobody better grab me and then threaten me around a running chipper. Nobody.

 

[clearance]

Utility whiners

Wow, here you have, get this, "verbally assaulted" a "customer" if they have yelled, screamed, and insulted you and you tell them to f-off and leave you alone.
If I actually laid someone out, I would be in jail. The company I worked for at the time would probably be suspended from Hydro work for a while. There would be an investigation to rival the O.J. murders. It is always the treeguys fault, always, the "customer" can do no wrong.

On the good side, old people are my favorite, they are the ones who smile and wave to us, they respect us.

 

[skyhightree1]

Personally I carry pepper spray due to dogs and other animals..I would have emptied a can in his face... Non lethal cant get in trouble but so much.. But I do have a bad temper so as soon as I was grabbed I would have punched out of natural reaction... I was in Law enforcement for 3 years and I probably wouldnt have let him get that close to me... Especially if I could see his demeanor wasnt right.

 

[pdqdl]

I am really surprised by these responses.

Hasn't anyone thought of calling the police? This sounds like a physical assault along with a verbal threat of deadly violence. Around here that will get you in jail every time.

It is very hard to place complaint calls to the utility company when you are calling from the cellblock payphone. Furthermore, I cannot imagine that a complaint from a homeowner will gain much credibility with the utility company when it follows a criminal charge for assault against their personnel.

I do not do any utility clearance so I have never encountered this problem. But my guys do enforce municipal weed control ordinances, and we occasionally get threatened by homeowners with guns to leave their property alone. The offender gets arrested, the tall weeds get mowed anyway, and the property owner ends up with a huge bill as well as a city fine, on top of their criminal charges.

If the homeowner only orders us to leave the property, we invite them to summon the police. We agree to depart peacefully if the police instruct us to go. Usually, they shut up and go back inside their house.

 

[Dadatwins]

Homeowner should have never been able to get that close to you with the chipper running. Need to be aware of everything around you when you have that machine running. There are some screwed up people out there.

 

[Grace Tree]

I agree with pdqdl. Call the cops. Over my lifetime I've tried ALL the other methods including firearms; aimed but not fired. I've found the method with the fewest lasting consequences is to make the call, tell the dispatcher you're dealing with an unstable person and you're concerned for your safety. Lawsuits are expensive and jail's no fun.
Phil