Watch: Scottish dad receives toilet roll via friend's drone amid shortages

Toilet paper has been one of the many products to run dry during the coronavirus pandemic.

But one Scottish man said his home-town was completely out of the essential item yesterday forcing him to turn to more creative ways of sourcing it.

Father-of-two Russ Howey, who lives in Duns, Borders, appealed to friends living nearby in the toilet roll crisis.

Fortunately his pal Scott Cullen had some to spare and delivered the bathroom essential to Russ’s back garden using a drone.

Scottish dad receives toilet roll via friend's drone amid shortages

The delivery plan meant the two Duns residents were sticking to recent social distancing rules by not meeting in person.

Footage taken shows Russ guiding the drone, which has two toilet rolls attached to it on the end of a long piece of string, over a neighbour’s garden fence and into his back yard.

The former crane driver said: “I cannot understand why people are buying so much toilet roll.

“Yesterday it ran out in the Co-op, Spar and a paper shop.

“I have a wife and two children so it’s not ideal

“My friend said he had some so he sent two rolls by his drone. Toilet roll air support.”

Russ, who worked for John Thorburn & Sons of Duns before the company closed temporarily due to the pandemic, said he has noticed stricter rules applied to supermarkets and shops since the lockdown measures were put in place.

“There are long queues at our local supermarkets at Berwick, about five people at a time in the local Co-op, one member per family,” he said.

The now furloughed worker said he hopes the government’s promise to pay 80 per cent of workers wages amid the health crisis will kick in soon given his wife is also out of work.

He added: “My wife was a self-employed cleaner in people’s houses, so that’s all been stopped.

“Clients have been amazing with her but it’s just for the best to stay away.

“My employer has also been amazing, it’s a business with roughly 55 to 60 employees and a family firm so they are good to work for.”

Supermarket shelves across the Borders suffered as people began to panic buy products in light of the coronavirus spreading.

Rationing had to be introduced for in-demand products such as soap, pasta and toilet rolls at Tesco in Galashiels and Morrisons in Hawick.

To combat panic-buying, some UK supermarkets are limiting the amount of essential items each customer can buy.

Tesco announced yesterday that it will cap online orders at 80 items in a bid to increase the number of customers it can safely deliver to.

The supermarket chain, which has already limited all products to a maximum of three per customer both online or in stores, said that online orders already placed would be unaffected unless customers try to make changes to them - anyone altering an existing order will become subject to the 80-item limit.