A Newcastle tradie has gone viral after filming a heated interaction with a woman furious about his truck blocking a shared-access driveway.
Daniel Wilson, 41, from home staging business DW Design & Styling, said he was unloading furniture to prepare a client’s house for sale last month when a man and a woman in the adjoining property came out and began yelling at him and his staff.
Mr Wilson took out his phone and began recording the bizarre interaction, which has since been viewed more than 1.7 million times on TikTok.
“Yeah and who do you think you are?” the woman angrily demands to know.
“I’m just here doing a job,” Mr Wilson replies.
“And this is our house and you’re not supposed to block the driveway,” she says.
Mr Wilson insists he is allowed to unload his truck and use the right-of-access driveway.
“You’re not — it’s not, it’s a right of way, which means you cannot block it at any time,” she says.
“What’s the issue?” Mr Wison asks. “I’m here unloading a truck. I’m running a business, I’m earning a living. I’ll be gone in 15 minutes.”
The woman takes aim at the owner of the other property, saying she is “the one that caused all this trouble”.
“I’m just here doing a job,” Mr Wilson says patiently. “I get it’s your home. I’m going to unload my truck, set the furniture up and I’ll be gone in 15 minutes.”
The man then chimes in, “You’re still on our property.”
Mr Wilson insists it’s “right of access, it’s an easement”.
“It’s not an easement,” the woman says. “Would you like me to go and get the court documents? Because I’m telling you this is not an easement.”
“Can’t I just do my job?” Mr Wilson asks.
“No — park out in the street,” she hits back.
Mr Wilson says he can’t do that as there is no parking.
“Double park then,” she replies.
“I can’t double park, it’s illegal,” he says.
“Well yes, well you tell everybody — you tell her that,” the woman says.
“She told me to have access through here,” he says.
“She’s not allowed to do it,” the woman insists.
“Can I just have 15 minutes to do this?” Mr Wilson asks.
“I’ll give you 15 minutes and then you better be gone,” she replies. “The police are coming. You’re not allowed to block at any time. It’s the law. It’s legal.”
Mr Wilson tells the woman he can move his truck quickly if she needs to get out.
“Are you going somewhere?” he asks.
“Yeah, probably,” she says.
“OK, if you need to go somewhere I’ll move it straight away for you,” he replies.
“Well, OK then — you can move it,” she says, walking away.
Mr Wilson told news.com.au the “funniest part” was the couple didn’t even own a car.
“I was told by the owner we would encounter a certain amount of resistance, we were warned,” he said.
He said the couple “ran out of the house within about three seconds” yelling after he parked the truck. “It was a fun way to start the year,” he said.
“It was our first job back after the Christmas break… My poor staff didn’t deserve that.”
Mr Wilson said contrary to what the woman says in the video, the police never turned up.
“We got it done within 14 minutes,” he said. “I’m waiting to see what round two is like when we go to collect our furniture after the house sells.”
Users on social media praised Mr Wilson for his handling of the situation.
“Doesn’t cost much to be nice. You were exceptionally nice and professional. Sad and a pity people are like that sometimes,” one person commented.
“This is probably the most exciting part of their day, her and her husband need to get out more, I bet they discussed this for a week afterwards,” another said.
“As soon as the flip case opened up you knew where this was going,” a third wrote.
Story Credit: news.com.au