Crane man left stranded

FORGET THE craze for 'happy slapping' where kids capture deliberately staged silly incidents on their cameraphones. A man was left stranded and furious yesterday by a case of 'happy swiping'.

A youth coolly and calmly got out of a white van; went up to a crane being used to re-paint a local hostelry; and stole (swiped) its keys.

Its operator was left hanging in the air and had eventually to be rescued by ladder.

The first that regulars of the Wheatsheaf, Ewell knew of the incident was when a passer-by walked in and said, "There's a man outside your pub swearing his head off."

Eventually a spare set of keys arrived and the crane - commonly known as a 'cherry-picker' was taken away.

Its operator, however, very definitely had a sense of humour failure over the whole sad affair. µ