A person wearing a T-Rex costume and suspected to be a local resident has been caught on camera fly-tipping bin bags.
The perpetrator dumped two bin bags before swinging around a lamppost and disappearing into the dead of the night.
The crime is thought to have taken place at the junction of Fairfax Drive and Electric Avenue in Southend.
An investigation has begun to unmask the culprit dressed in the purple dinosaur outfit.
The person is thought to have deployed such extreme detection evasion tactics to avoid the cameras installed by the local council on the seafront, which were introduced after a flurry of fly-tipping in 2023.
The perpetrator’s disguise helped them avoid a £400 fine, the penalty for dumping rubbish in a public space in the Essex town.
The resident who shared the video said: ‘I couldn’t believe my eyes. It was the night before bin day too. Clearly, he is struggling with the new bin rules.’
Another resident, awoken by the commotion, said: ‘Well, Barney the Dinosaur was clearly up to some mischief last night.’
The council introduced rubbish-related measures in October that have caused controversy in the town.
This October, tens of thousands of wheelie bins were rolled out across the Essex holiday destination, where residents had previously been asked leave their rubbish out in sacks.
This left locals to brand the new system ‘confusing’ and ‘crazy’ as they said that their streets and gardens were now rammed with plastic bins.
Elderly residents were also left baffled by a new council app designed to help locals remember which bin goes out on which day.
Southend residents also warned the seaside resort will be turned into ‘Bin City’ amid chaos as residents made the transition from refuse bags to wheelie bins.
A petition against the roll-out of wheelie bins in Southend-on-Sea was started by a resident who said blocking pavements with the bulky plastic containers is ‘an accident waiting to happen’.
The wheelie bin roll-out was first agreed in 2023 as part of the then Conservative-led local council’s switch to fortnightly collections.
Households which the council agreed had nowhere to store at least three wheelie bins could continue to have waste collected in sacks.
Southend-on-Sea City Council said all households had received wheelie bins, apart from those still being assessed for suitability.
Its leader, Councillor Daniel Cowan, said: ‘This new service makes recycling easier for residents and to keep our streets cleaner with waste kept in bins, not sacks that wildlife and vermin can rip open.’
