14 DAY TRIAL // A most peculiar incident happened in the village of Penclawdd in the north of the Gower Peninsula in Wales earlier this year, in late July.
A businessman by the name of Mark Swistun was refused a drink at a local pub on the grounds that it was too late and the bar was closed. You see, it was past 11 p.m. and the pub was no longer taking orders.
When told that he couldn't have his drink because he had asked for it too close to closing time, the man didn't protest. Well, not right away.
He did return a couple of hours later behind the wheel of a 28-ton JCB and completely wrecked the place. No, really, nothing was left standing. Walls, tables and umbrellas were all destroyed in a matter of minutes.
“I came down in my pyjamas to see half the pub had been demolished. The JCB had crashed into the pub but there was no sign of anyone,” Heather Skipper, the pub's landlady, said in an interview at the time, as cited by The Guardian.
Even weirder, the man got away with it
Law enforcement officers estimate that, when crashing the JCB into the Royal Oak pub, 45-year-old Mark Swistun caused damage amounting to around ₤40,000 (roughly €54,500 / $61,300).
After a long investigation, however, they concluded that they couldn't possibly charge him. As it turns out, the businessman owned the establishment together with a friend called Colin McDonald.
Since the pub was his, he had a right to destroy it. Filing charges against the businessman for wrecking his own property just didn't make sense, officers in Penclawdd concluded. So, they had to let him go.
“A 45-year-old man who was arrested following an incident at the Royal Oak hotel in Penclawdd, Swansea, in July has been released without charge,” a police spokesperson said in an interview.
