By Joyce Shaw
This is a true story told to me by a friend (let’s call him Joe), which happened in Consett a few years ago!
Many years ago Consett had a traffic warden who took great pride in doing his job.
My friend Joe, always wanted a Mercedes and one day, on his way to the hardware shop he noticed this Mercedes parked on double yellow lines.
He peered into the front window to have a closer look at the finish on the control panel, when suddenly, the local traffic warden came up to him and quite abruptly told him to get it moved.
My friend was a little taken aback and then heard the officer repeat the order “Get it moved now!!”
Normally a quiet man, Joe was a little annoyed at the tone of voice now commanding him to move the car. He started to walk away and mumbled to the officer that he should go and look for some brains. He went into the hardware shop and thought nothing more about it. However when he came out of the shop, back onto the street, there was the traffic warden with an escort of 2 policemen at his side. He had obviously asked for back up, whilst Joe had gone into the shop, seemingly ignoring him!
Well, Joe saw the situation, and knowing that he was innocent, he decided to walk on past the policemen. Not so!! One of the policemen blocked his way and told him he wanted his keys. Joe was absolutely befuddled at this but the policeman was having no nonsense and made the demand again.
At this point, Joe took out his car keys and, on handing them to the policeman he said, “You’ll have a job fitting them into that Mercedes because my keys fit that Peugeot 406 parked round the corner!”
At this, the policeman stiffened up and, looking at the traffic warden, he said to him “It will take a long time for you to live this down!”
Needless to say, Joe is also very careful that he never parks on a double yellow line!!
I recall a Consett Traffic warden whom was a failed police applicant (so he must have had a weird personality). Very aggressive in nature and narcissistic in personality. From memory (I can’t be certain ) I recall there was an issue of a sexual attack and he was fired. Perhaps someone might know the actual story as he did live local.