This is the moment when bailiffs trying to evict a cancer-stricken father were forced to retreat after 500 strangers formed a human blockade around his bungalow.
Tom Crawford, 63, has been battling the bailiffs over claims he still owes £43,000 in outstanding mortgage repayments. Last July more than 300 strangers successfully stopped enforcers from turning up at his three-bedroom home in Carlton, Nottinghamshire, after he begged for help on YouTube. And today - exactly six months after the first eviction attempt - they were forced to abandon plans to turf him out of his home where he has lived for 27 years.
It follows bailiffs serving a second eviction notice on Mr Crawford last week which ordered him to vacate his property by 10.30am today. Supporters, many donning the grandfather-of-two's trademark straw hat with the words 'I am Tom Crawford' written across it, began congregating in the road before 7am. A white transit van and black Mercedes containing bailiffs arrived at 11am but were unable to reach the bungalow.
After a brief stand-off, the bailiffs retreated, to cheers from the 500-strong crowd who had travelled from across the country to support the Crawford family. Mr Crawford, who retired from fitting carpets due to ill health two years ago, said: 'I am humbled by all the people here.
People power
People power
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
Re: People power
The nerve of those old sick people cheating honest mortgage companies like that! In America, we arm our police to fight small wars just in case this type of bullying fraud happens. That crowd would have been teargassed, tenderized and ziptied together in 30 minutes and that old rascal would have been out on the street in an hour flat in any red-blooded American city.
WE have a constitution just to make sure this kind of nonsense won't take hold. Being old and sick does not give you the right to pick people's pockets!
yrs,
rubato
(Exploring his Republican side. And it feels GOOD. "Hey babe, take a walk on GOP side, Hey babe, take a walk down cruel street.")
WE have a constitution just to make sure this kind of nonsense won't take hold. Being old and sick does not give you the right to pick people's pockets!
yrs,
rubato
(Exploring his Republican side. And it feels GOOD. "Hey babe, take a walk on GOP side, Hey babe, take a walk down cruel street.")
Re: People power
Those people must have been really affluent to have all that free time, so they should have ponied up and paid off the guy's mortgage...
Re: People power
Frankly, that would be far more effective in the long run.
Or find a barrister or solicitor (whichever version of Brit lawyer is appropriate) to represent him on a pro bono basis, and try and get his mess sorted out.
PS - where IS Long Run, i haven't seen him around here in a while . . .
Or find a barrister or solicitor (whichever version of Brit lawyer is appropriate) to represent him on a pro bono basis, and try and get his mess sorted out.
PS - where IS Long Run, i haven't seen him around here in a while . . .
“I ask no favor for my sex. All I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet off our necks.” ~ Ruth Bader Ginsburg, paraphrasing Sarah Moore Grimké
Re: People power
Split 500 ways, it would have averaged less than 100 a head...Frankly, that would be far more effective in the long run.
And now that he's gotten all this publicity, he's probably getting a lot of contributions...