A feisty great-grandmother held four builders hostage after they told her improvement work on her home would not be finished by Christmas, several British newspapers reported on Saturday.
Josie Medlock snapped when she was told the modernisation of her municipal council-owned home would not be completed until the new year, scuppering her plans to have 14 family members round for a slap-up Christmas Day meal.
The 59-year-old widow refused to accept the workers’ excuses and barricaded the front door of her home in Rotherham, northern England, and told them they would be free in time for Christmas but only if they finished as promised.
The panicked labourers called police from a cellphone and a team of police officers was dispatched to her suburban bungalow.
But as they stood armed with a battering ram outside, Medlock reportedly told them through the letterbox: “I’m not going to hurt them. I’m just making a point.”
Council mediators eventually ended the siege after promising the work would be completed in time — but with a different team of builders.
“I had just reached the end of my tether with them,” Medlock, who has two daughters, 15 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, was quoted as saying.
“They have had me up nearly every day at 6am for them to start at 8am and then they didn’t turn up. I just couldn’t take it any more. I was beside myself with worry that the house would look like a tip for Christmas.” — AFP