Harringay online

Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!

Odd man 50s-60s said was mugged

Just now (6:10 pm) been approached on Fairfax Road by a guy who was saying that he had been mugged. As I stepped out of the car with my two small kids he started talking to me about how we he worked at the Samaritans , had just been mugged and how it 'wasn't his finest hour'. He then showed me what looked like a head wound right on the top of his head.

It was very odd and he looked a bit shambolic, not drunk or anything though. Who knows, maybe he had just been mugged after all, but he didn't ask for me to phone the police, just asked for money and was standing between me and my kids.

As I was a bit exposed with two young kids I simply gave him a fiver and bundled the kids into the house.

Have no idea if he was genuine or not, but my gut says not.

Anyone else have similar experience?

Views: 2244

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Phil M on March 31, 2017 at 17:17

He did the same thing with me about three weeks ago, just near Jewson's on Wightman Road. I gave him a fiver towards his train fare back to Berkhamsted. More fool me...

Permalink Reply by Gordon T on April 1, 2017 at 0:11

Berkhamsted: SNAP !!   

Permalink Reply by Alexandra Ho on April 17, 2017 at 9:16
We got stopped last night by this guy - I thought it was odd so came on to check in the forums if the same thing had happened to others! We were stopped on Green Lanes near Woodside Park, he said he was a pyschiatrist who had finished his shift at the Samaritnas, been mugged by some boys and showed us his head injury. He was quite well spoken and said he needed money to get a train fare to Berkhamstead - exactly what Phil and Gordon said! We said he should go to the hospital and the shop we were next to would call for him as we're near Morth Mid but he said he wanted to go to UCH then said not to worry and went off. Was a bit confused by the whole situation but looks like he tells the same story a lot...
Permalink Reply by Gordon T on April 17, 2017 at 9:49

He tells it well, I have to acknowledge.  I encountered him without the 'head injury' make-up, though.

Permalink Reply by Fi on April 17, 2017 at 13:57

He's been working this angle for a while then - I lived in CE until about 3 1/2 years ago, and he tried it on me and my boyfriend one evening , I think 2012, (psychiatrist, just been mugged, dazed and confused) and we gave him £10 for a taxi home. About three nights later we were getting off the bus and he tried it again...  

Permalink Reply by David on May 16, 2017 at 10:03

This guy got me last night. I was parking the car outside our house off Alexandra Park Road when he shambled up to me saying "i'm so sorry to bother you, but I've lost my bag after two boys jumped me as I was walking down to Bounds Green tube station and now I haven't got any money to get home and need £16." he had a wound on his head which in retrospect was not a fresh wound and wasn't bleeding at all, but looked more like a scab that had been picked. He said he wanted to go to UCH to get checked. He offered to leave his phone "as a deposit" and he would be back tomorrow to work at Norfolk House School. I gave him £20 and immediately thought I was being done.

He was wearing a shirt and tie, but frankly it looked like he was wearing an outfit from a second hand shop. he was a white man, aged 55-65, clean shaven, dark hair with a granulated wound on the top of his head. His teeth were not brilliant. He spoke with a quite proper and almost plummy English accent, but something about him gave me the impression he was Irish - he looked a little like a more dishevelled, dark haired Richard Harris. 

As soon as I gave him the money I said to my son "that was a scam" and after searching online it seems my fears have been confirmed on this forum.

Permalink Reply by matt on May 16, 2017 at 10:24
Blimey! No wonder this guy has been doing this for a while ... £20!!
Permalink Reply by Dick Harris on May 17, 2017 at 2:30
The reference to Berkhamstead jogged my memory of just such an encounter on Wightman Road late one evening. I did not give him money but I did take him to Harringay station and bought him a ticket to Berkhamstead. His head injury seemed genuine but I shall look at it more closely if he appears again.
Permalink Reply by David on May 17, 2017 at 9:04

Did you, of all people, think he resembled Richard Harris?

Also he must have been furious that you bought him a ticket to Berkhamstead. Hilarious. Did you actually see him get on the train? Imagine him in Berkhamstead? Those Tories would rip him apart with hounds.

Permalink Reply by Pat C on April 21, 2021 at 21:42

A man approached me on Seven Sisters Road around lunchtime on Tuesday. He showed me the "gash" on his forehead, which looked quite nasty but wasn't bleeding. He said he'd been mugged, they'd taken his cards and cash but not his phone, and he needed money to get home to Berkhamsted. It wasn't adding up for me - that gash would have bled a lot, and there was no blood on his face or clothes. And he had a phone - he could have called the police and asked for help. I told him I wasn't carrying any cash so I couldn't help him.

It sounds like the same man.

Permalink Reply by Julia Snell on April 21, 2021 at 22:13

Encountered this man in Regent’s Park last summer. Same spiel. Same head wound

RSS

Advertising

© 2024   Created by Hugh.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service