A tank engineer got payback on two passersby who clambered onto his military vehicles – by jumping up and down on their Tesla. Ashley Mead is a tank engineer at Tanks-a-Lot where they offer military vehicle experience days, but he says passersby often climb on the company’s display vehicles on their front entrance.
The 23-year-old said he is fed up with people ignoring the ‘no climbing’ sign so when he caught two men clambering on top of the tanks, he took matters into his own hands. Footage shows business owner Nick Mead, 53, warning the lads to get down or Ashley would climb on their car that they’d parked on the forecourt.
When the hooded men ignore his instructions, Ashley runs up the bonnet of their Tesla – before jumping up and down on the roof. In the viral video, with more than one million views, Nick said: “If you don’t get off, he’s going to get in your car. We do it on a regular basis, you’ve been warned. You got five seconds or he’s going to start jumping a little bit higher.”
The two quickly start shouting at him to get down, before they can be seen climbing off the tanks while Ashley lies down on the car roof. Nick said it is not fair for people to climb on the tanks as they cost around half a million pounds and people could fall off.
Ashley, from Brackley, Northamptonshire, said: “We have a lot of tanks on display but we do ask that no one climbs on the vehicle for health and safety reasons. Obviously people ignore that and we always find people climbing all over the vehicles and they break stuff.
“We’re just a bit fed up with it. I thought it’d be quite entertaining, it’s not really going to cause any damage. They weren’t in the best of moods but I think they understand. It was payback, it’s not too different to a tank. You climb on ours we’ll climb on yours, an eye for an eye.”
Nick, managing director of Tanks-a-lot, said: “If you look at the price of their car, and the price of the tank, you’re walking all over my tank, which is freshly painted, and it’s worth half a million, your car is worth £2,000, and if I walked all over your car you’d be crying. So we tested out the theory.
“I try to do everything with a big smile and keep it cheeky but I do think that people should be respectful.”
Despite the row, Nick claims the argument ended on good terms. The business owner said if people asked to take pictures instead of climbing on the tanks, he would allow them. Nick said: “Nothing was damaged and I think we settled on pretty good terms when those guys left. Hopefully it can warn people.
“We’d love for you to come take pictures with the tanks, but don’t climb all over them and try to get hatches open and stuff like that. That tank is licensed to me and if I’m on that tank and you’re in it that’s fine, but if I’m not with you and you’re on or in it then you’re in possession of an unlicensed firearm.
“I don’t think you should do that, I think it’s cheeky. Next thing they’re falling off and they’re suing you. It does draw attention, we have 300 tanks at the moment, there’s enough tanks at the entrance to film a rap video. People shouldn’t climb on them, that’s naughty. I’d say don’t stand on my tanks, be respectful, to people who say we shouldn’t stand on cars.”
Commenters on Nick’s post praised his response to the two lads, while others claim tanks are made to be stood on. One commenter said: “For anyone complaining if the person on the tank fell they would want compensation.”
A second said: “Fair play, especially if there’s a sign asking them not to.” A third said: “Absolutely class response.”
But not everyone agreed that their ‘eye for an eye’ policy was fair. One wrote: “Tanks are made to climb on, cars aren’t.” Another said: “It’s a tank, surely it can handle it.”
