A maintenance worker in Cardiff turned detective after catching a fly-tipper on CCTV – then delivered instant karma by dumping the seven bags of rubbish back on the culprit’s doorstep.
Dean Gauci, 38, was tending to a block of flats he manages on Friday when he discovered seven sacks of household waste dumped outside the property. He sifted through hours of CCTV footage and caught the culprit in the act at 9am that day.
“Dean Gauci tracked down a fly-tipper via CCTV and dumped the rubbish back on his doorstep in Cardiff.”
Determined to find the person responsible, the Airbnb maintenance worker spoke to neighbours on the street where the waste was left. One of them gave him the litterer’s identity. “It turns out he lived 10 houses up from the property! He literally lived on the same street,” Gauci said.
He marched to the man’s front door, piled the rubbish on the doorstep, and rang the bell. When the man opened the door, Gauci told him he had been caught on CCTV. The culprit replied: “I was going to move this, sorry mate.”
Fly-tipping is a persistent problem at the flats. Gauci said: “People fly-tip here all the time – this is probably the 30th or 40th time people have done it. So I was so determined to find the person who did it. I could have taken that rubbish and charged the landlord to dispose of it, but I wanted to do the right thing and catch the guy.”
Before reviewing the CCTV, Gauci had even searched through the bags for clues, finding Amazon boxes with the addresses peeled off. After identifying the neighbour, he filmed himself returning the waste and knocking on the door. “I piled it right up on his doorstep to give him a taste of his own medicine. His response was funny; he must have felt stupid! But he dumped it,” Gauci said.
The culprit apologised after being shown the footage, according to Gauci, who runs Stay Care Operations. The incident has sparked a sense of satisfaction among residents tired of repeated fly-tipping.