Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Witnesses to a crime on the corner of Beresford Rd & Green Lanes, Wed 11 June around 9.30am
Hello neighbours
A request and a community service announcement:
This morning (Wed 11th) around 9.25am I was standing at the corner of Beresford Rd & Green Lanes, right outside the florist with the big pink sign, when a mugger on a motorcycle mounted the pavement, grabbed my phone and took off.
I was lucky as he didn't punch me or hurt me: just took the phone and carried on riding on the footpath, the wrong way up Beresford Rd on the south side of the road.
Many of the motorists who came down Beresford in the minutes following noticed him - it's hard not to notice a motorcyclist at great speed riding not just illegally but dangerously the wrong way down a one way street. I was too distraught to notice much about his appearance, beyond dark clothes, dark gloves, helmet and a mostly black motorcycle. So if anyone witnessed him, or saw what he did when he got up to Wightman (or perhaps went down the passage), or more importantly what he did before he came up and mugged me, I would be grateful if you would post it here or send it to me in a private message. If you were waiting for a bus just outside Blend around 9.25-9.30am, you would have seen him.
The police were there very swiftly but did not catch him. They think he may have done a similar mugging shortly afterwards in Islington.
I am resigned to the loss of the phone, but am so very sad about the photos and videos I had on the phone that hadn't been downloaded since my most recent backup. Most of all I am grieving for some recent audio recordings of my kids, including one of my little boy making a birthday card for his dad which was lovely and which breaks my heart now that it is lost :(
So the community service announcement is to please go away and backup everything on your phone that is precious - photos & videos of the people you love - and especially the files stored on apps that aren't backed up as part of the regular iCloud backup, or whatever other auto-backup system you have. You can replace the phone, but you can't replace those.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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Bloody hell - really sorry to hear about this. Sounds a bit Rio de J.
It's so easy for us all to be less than 100% with our backups. Sad to hear you've lost some treasured moments.
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I disagree John. I think in most areas of London and at most times there's no need for a bunker mentality. If EA was behaving in the way you describe, I don't think that she or anyone should think about changing this perfectly normal behaviour.
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Permalink Reply by Your Majesty on
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Hello. I've just signed up to post thanks to your comment. Are you suggesting that anyone wanting to make a public call should assume a self defence style pose ready to fend off would be muggers? I think this poor person just sounds unfortunate and it is something that could happen to anyone. Hope they catch the mugger.
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Permalink Reply by Alison P on
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So sorry to hear this EA, especially losing your photos and videos.
I don't know how it works on other phones but last time I updated my Flickr app I accidentally did something that meant all my photos get uploaded to the site when I take them (but only I can see them). Was going to disable it but I'm now thinking its handy.
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Permalink Reply by Justin Guest on
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There is a camera at the bottom of Hewitt, often pointing towards the bottom of Beresford, when not enforcing the Hewitt No Right Turn... Maybe they were caught on that.
This is the sort of thing you hear happens a heck of a lot in Spain, first time I have heard it here. You must have been pretty shaken up.
Also, do you have the 'Find My Phone' facility enabled? Not sure if this is of any use now, and assuming it is an IPhone?
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Permalink Reply by empyrean_aisles on
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Thank you to the kind and compassionate people who have offered commiserations and advice. I do have Find My iPhone enabled, and the 999 dispatcher looked it up immediately but it had already been switched off. Thieves do that quickly, apparently, because they know the phone can be traced that way. The Flickr idea is a good one: thanks, Alison. And there was a nearby camera that caught quite a lot of detail that I will try and follow up tomorrow.
As for generalisations about the way women should behave in public: textbook misogyny, really, with an extra bonus touch of mansplaining thrown in. And, of course, mothers singled out for particular disapproval (how dare we be focused on something other than our children?) - again, textbook. You have to laugh. Far from making myself an easy target - I was not talking on the phone at the time, and had in fact been looking up and down Green Lanes and Beresford Rd for the preceding fifteen minutes searching for the person I was waiting for - the mugger had to do a sequence of illegal things in order to get the phone: mount the kerb on a motorcycle, drive right up next to me so he was dangerously close, and then drive off very fast down the footpath of a residential street.
I should also add an extra detail that I learnt from two nearby shopkeepers, one of whom was translating for the other so I can't be sure I understood exactly what she was saying: she said that at about 9.30am a man was on Wightman Rd stopping cars from turning into Beresford Rd. He wasn't a policeman, or a member of a roadworks crew, just a random person. But a few minutes later when her co-worker was driving the same way, the man had gone. I am not sure what to make of this - it might well be unrelated - but if anyone has any insights, or was stopped by the same man, I'd be glad to know about it.
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Permalink Reply by matt on
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If it did involve more than one moped rider then you should probably read this. However, the police who dealt with your emergency should be aware of this gang. Your attacker may of course be copying rather than from the same gang. I'm just glad you weren't hurt doing the incident. Take care.
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Oh my god. That is awful. I have heard of these motorbike muggers using knives to slice the straps off women's handbags as they pass, and as he sped off I had an absurd moment of gratitude that he had not pulled a knife on me to try and get hold of my backpack too.
(by the way your link is broken; I think you meant to point here.)
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Link fixed. The detectives should contact you soon to try and gather as much information as possible, if they haven't already.
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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on
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It really makes me angry when attempts are made to shift the responsibility for the crime from the criminal to the victim. It doesn't matter if you were on the phone, off the phone or doing a hula dance at the time, this criminal stole from you and the blame and responsibility for the consequences are theirs.
Hope you're ok.
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