One Eventful Night

As far as Thursday nights go, last night was pretty hectic. Generally, they're reasonably quite and only the most hardened drinkers go to the pub. The hardened drinkers and those on their holidays.

With both blocks locked down, without any German's obstructing my course for the evening, and the gates firmly clasped shut. I began walking around the site. There were a few people still milling around and the occasional raised voice from under the canvas. All of whom were told to quieten down.

As I walked round the back of one of the blocks, I had been told by Alex that there were two males who had been spoken to on numerous occasions by the day warden and if I had any issues with them, I was to call him out. When I walked towards them, they didn't seem to notice me. With a hi-vis jacket on, it's pretty much impossible to not notice someone. I asked them to turn the music off and reminded them that they shouldn't have it on after eleven o'clock. They apologised and turned it down. Yes, down. . . but not off. As I stood there being talked to by the two males, I was beginning to wish I hadn't, as I knew at that point that I would have to be on the receiving end of an ear-bashing every time I went to speak to them.

After about ten minutes, I made my excuses and left. The site is quite large and there was a crowd in the next field making a noise. When I got into the field, I could tell by the tone of voice that they were teenagers, possibly around the ages of 16-17 and under the influence of alcohol. 99% of the time I am polite and courteous to our noisy patrons, but whenever I have to deal with teenagers, I find that the best solution is to be direct. If they put up an argument, they automatically lose their right to the "three strikes and you're out" rule. It's usually a case of, if I have to come back here again tonight you will be leaving the site.

As the night passed, I wandered around the site and back over to visit the two males again. Surprise, surprise. They hadn't seen me coming and had their music back up at an unacceptable volume. I reminded them again that I had asked them to turn it off. They were being faux-polite and as I walked off, I decided to call Alex out to have words in their ear.

Unfortunately for Alex, he had just got into a relaxing bubble bath, after having a stressful day on the site. Fifteen minutes later, he appeared. I explained the situation to him and told him who the perpetrators were. Needless to say, he wasn't surprised. He walked up to them and had words in their direction (I say this, because I doubt any of those words were being taken in) and told me to keep my eyes and ears on them.

Fast-forward half an hour, and I'm back at the tent. Only this time, they've managed to start a little party of their own with some of the stragglers from the pubs. I walked over and advised the pub-goers to retire to their tents and remain in complete silence until the morning. They were, surprisingly, compliant. I give the two males ten minutes to pack up and head for bed. They agree to this.

Half an hour later, I head round to ensure that they are in bed. When I noticed that they weren't at the bench, I was fairly happy. That was until I realised that they were in their tent, talking louder than ever and they had turned the music back on. Enough is enough. I called Alex out, again, and he was there within five minutes.

Due to the heated debate which took place, including; the two males attempting to fight Alex, Alex giving them one chance to dismantle the tent, Alex starting to dismantle the tent and Alex finally phoning the Police, three seconds before one of the males had decided to call them, but subsequently realised that it wasn't worth it.

I was dispatched to the main gate to escort the Police onto the site, so I missed all (if any) action which took place. The Police turned up and were briefed by myself as to the current events, just as Alex walked round and briefed them a second time confirming every precise point I had made. Alex and one of the officers made their way to the tent, while I waited for the other officer to retrieve a breath kit from the van. Unfortunately, that van didn't come with the optional breath kit, if need be a FIT test would be carried out.

The two males were formally cautioned and after giving the Police the same story I had been given earlier in the evening, told to go in their tent and remain quiet. If the Police were to be called out again, then the two males would be arrested.

For the rest of the evening, the only noise emitting from the tent was the sound of one of the male occupants snoring, unaware that he would be getting a rather rude awakening at eight o'clock and told to leave the park immediately.

From thereon in, it was a very quiet night. Although I have yet to find out if there were any complaints about those males. I'll undoubtedly find out tonight and I'll update the blog tomorrow with my findings.