Garbage Man Fired For Kicking Head Off Snowman In Front Of Child

A garbage man has been fired from his job after surveillance footage captured the man kicking over a snowman in front of the child who built it. Sophie Taylor, 25 and from Hereford in the UK, saw the man kicking her son’s snowman as he collected the trash in the neighborhood. While it might seem like no big deal, Sophie was devastated as 3-year-old Joseph had only just built the snowman and she decided she wasn’t going to just let the man get away with it.

  1. Joseph likes two things: building snowmen and watching the trash men. As Sophie told The Sun, Joseph always watches the garbage men out the window and waves at them when they come by. However, there was nothing to celebrate last week because his beloved snowman he’d only just built was heartlessly destroyed.
  2. The little boy was devastated by the garbage man’s behavior. “On Tuesday he came running to me in tears sobbing ‘the binman has broken my snowman’ and he started doing a kicking motion,” Sophie recalled. “I didn’t really understand what he meant but when we watched the CCTV back I was really shocked.”
  3. Sophie doesn’t get why the garbage man was so cruel. While it may not seem like a big deal to destroy “What kind of person does that to a snowman? It was obviously made by children but he just started kicking it in the head,” she said. “To do that in front of Joseph makes it just so heartless.” Of course, you have to question whether or not the guy even realized that the little boy was watching or that he was going to be upset about it. I doubt it was some nefarious action!
  4. Joseph’s Dad, Tom, has branded the garbage man, Callum Woodhouse, a “bully.” He claims that since his kids put in so much effort to build the snowman (which the garbage man couldn’t possibly have known), destroying it makes him a bully. He was so mad, he decided to contact his employer and tattle on him. “I emailed the company he worked for who said they were launching disciplinary proceedings,” Tom said. “I just hope he thinks harder about his actions. Joseph usually loves watching the binmen out the window but he’s too upset to do that now.”
  5. Herefordshire Council actually fired the garbage man over this! If this sounds like a recipe for an unfair dismissal trial to you, you’re not alone. Herefordshire Council did indeed admit that they fired the garbage man for kicking the snowman. “We are aware of this incident and are disappointed that an individual representing the council would behave in such a manner,” a council spokesperson said in a statement. “The employee was a member of agency staff working on behalf of one of the council’s contractors, and he has been informed that he will not be used again. Information has also been circulated to all agency employees outlining the professional standards they are expected to uphold when representing a Herefordshire Council contractor.”
  6. Woodhouse isn’t sorry for kicking the snowman. Woodhouse said he was “overwhelmed” at how such a seemingly simple thing could cause such a “massive impact.” As he told LBC: “I felt like the snow man was obstructing my pathway to work, as a bin man we have an important role which the community rely on. So to lose my job over kicking something that’s going to melt anyway is ridiculous. The snowman was in the way to put the bin back in the first place.” Woodhouse went on to say that he’d apologized to the family when the story blew up online, before he was fired, via Facebook but they’d blocked him.
  7. Is it fair that he lost his job during a pandemic over something so silly? Woodhouse worries about making ends meet now that he’s out of work, especially since he has a family to support. “I’m out of work now, just for kicking a snowman. I’m going to be a dad now. I’ve lost my job, f***ed over a snowman. I have a family to feed.” A petition has since been launched to give him his job back.
Jennifer Still is a writer and editor with more than 10 years of experience. The managing editor of Bolde, she has bylines in Vanity Fair, Business Insider, The New York Times, Glamour, Bon Appetit, and many more. You can follow her on Twitter @jenniferlstill
close-link
close-link
close-link
close-link