WHEN brassed-off binmen found their route blocked by a parked car, they decided to take action against the offender.

They dragged dozens of wheelie bins from surrounding streets to give the motorist a taste of his or her own medicine, but their cheeky prank was caught on camera and uploaded to the video-sharing website YouTube.

Now their actions are going viral and becoming an internet phenomenon. The footage was put on the world wide web just a few weeks ago and at the start of this week only a handful of people had seen it. By last night, thousands of viewers had logged on to watch the footage.

The undated footage shows binmen putting more than a dozen empty bins around the car, which is obstructing their passage down a back street.

The Bolton News has identified the street as Stephenson Street, Horwich. The user who has posted the video has included a description which says the binmen had made the bizarre protest because the car was blocking an alleyway they regularly use as a shortcut.

The description reads: “This shows Horwich Bin Men getting their own back on a car owner who has obstructed a back alley with their car. The bin men usually drive their van through this back alley to the next street and they are a bit annoyed they have to drive round via Chorley New Road, which is very busy.”

The video has become a hit on the social networking site Facebook, with users posting it to their walls and, by last night, almost 2,000 people had viewed the 62-second video.

The Bolton News has spoken to a number of binmen, who all denied being involved in the incident or knowing of the existence of the footage.

One said: “I’ve not seen the video or heard any of the lads in the depot talking about it. These kind of things do go on, but it is just a bit of harmless fun.

“It can be frustrating when cars block the waggons, but the lads will have made sure they didn’t damage the vehicle in question.

Town hall chiefs have studied the footage and believe it dates from at least 2006. A council spokesman said: “Despite the fact this took place at least four years ago, we take any incident of this sort of behaviour very seriously, and, had the staff still been in our employment, we would have launched a formal investigation.”