Recycle or Else

Breaking and entering:

Bizarre footage shows the moment a Croydon Council "bin officer" landed his local authority with a £100 bill for repairs when he called at Bharat and Sheela Gandhi's South Norwood home to talk to them about recycling collections, only to be bamboozled by their padlocked gate. After failing to find an entry, the bungling employee forced the gate off its hinges to open it before walking through.

Mr and Mrs Gandhi were not at their Dagnall Park home at the time, but captured the incident, which happened on April 9, on the CCTV system they installed after their house was burgled in 2011.

Croydon Council had decided to visit the house after noticing they were not leaving recycling out for collection.

Yes, you read it right: a government employee broke into their home to find out if they were recycling. Read that again and let it sink in real good. Now read this:

The council, which says the breakage was accidental, has offered to refund the £100 repair costs. A council spokesman said: "We’re waiting for details of the necessary repairs and we will compensate the home owners appropriately for this accidental damage.

"Staff on the team have been reminded of the importance of carrying their ID at all times and if, as in this case, they have left it at home, a temporary form of identification will be arranged."

"Accidental," is it? Reading between, that means the council members feel their employee was perfectly within his rights to illegally enter private property. Their government employee. The gate damage was purely incidental to doing his job in what they feel is the correct fashion -- by breaking and entering.

Do you hear those very loud bells going off? If you don't, you're either an idiot or part of the problem. Or both.