Wild dispute between Australian couple and tradies divides online opinion

The woman was seen picking up and throwing handfuls of dirt. Photo / rajra1991 / TikTok

Footage of a wild dispute between an elderly Australian couple and a group of tradies has gained a huge amount of attention online, with viewers divided over who is in the wrong.

TikTok user Raj Raj uploaded a video of the altercation on Monday, which he says took place in Greenacre, in southwest Sydney.

The video, which has amassed more than 762,000 views, starts off showing an elderly woman picking up handfuls of mud and throwing it at the tradesmen working on her neighbour’s house.

The man who uploaded the video also has footage of a number of other construction sites on his TikTok page.

The woman is heard screaming as she picks up soil from part of a torn-up driveway and hurls it at the workers.

“Move, move, move, what the f**k?” the man filming can be heard saying as the scene unfolds.

“This is Greenacre everyone. Come live in Greenacre, it’s a mad place. Shootings, killings, neighbours…”

It is not immediately clear why the woman is so upset, but the man filming eventually reveals the workers had cut electricity to the neighbour’s home.

“Boys ripped off the wire,” the man says, panning the camera up towards the powerlines.

“You cut the power,” an elderly man tells the tradies, as his partner continues to scream at the men.

One of the workers then assures the couple that they were going to run a new powerline “right now” for them.

The woman was seen picking up and throwing handfuls of dirt. Photo / rajraj1991 / TikTok

This response prompts the woman to grab more handfuls of dirt and throw it at the man speaking.

“Hey!” the person filming yells out to the woman, before someone is heard saying “excuse me” in a high-pitched voice.

The woman turns towards the camera, picks up a piece of debris from the dirt and pulls it up over her head as if to throw it at the person filming.

The cameraman immediately hides behind a door, saying: “She is throwing bricks at me. Look.”

The woman drops the object in her hand and makes some rude gestures towards the camera before walking back over to the elderly man.

“Why you don’t f***ing tell us you cut the power, eh?” the older man asks the workers.

“Not you, not him, not him,” he adds, pointing at all the tradesmen standing around the neighbour’s property.

One of the workers then tells the couple to “speak to Ausgrid”.

“If you want, I can run a new cable now,” he adds.

The footage was filmed in Greenacre. Photo / rajra1991 / TikTok

The footage has gained more than 1800 comments, with social media users unable to agree on who is in the wrong in the situation.

Some believe the couple was justified in their anger at having power cut to their home, seemingly without warning.

“Well if you cut their power without notice, then I get why she’s upset,” one person said, with another claiming they would be “raging 10x more than her”.

“Cowboys like this do what ever they want without consideration to neighbours. Happens all the time. Bet no notice or communication,” another person claimed.

One added: “Those poor people have clearly been traumatised by that house being built next door and have finally snapped!!!”

There were other commenters who agreed that the workers needed to tell the couple if there was a possibility their power could be cut, but thought the woman was “overreacting” to the situation.

“If they didn’t give notice of cutting the power, then she has a right to be upset, but damn, the dirt throwing is a little much,” one person wrote.

“Angry that power was cut off … yes! But throwing a tantrum and throwing debris at people is really uncalled for. Wasn’t intentional,” another commenter said.

One person said the woman had a right to be upset but her behaviour was “unacceptable”, particularly the “gesture she made with her hand”.

One person added: “Okay, even if it is the power thing, I would never act like this. I’d just politely say, hey, when will this be back on?”