Phone thefts in East Dulwich

[NicoleM]

There have been a number of thefts around the East Dulwich Grove, Melbourne Grove part of East Dulwich in the past few weeks. Recently a man on a bike (i'd say aged between about 18 - 25) wearing a balaclava or ski mask with his hood up, mounted the pavement behind me and grabbed my phone out of my hand. I instinctively screamed really loudly and i'm not sure if that shocked him but he dropped the phone and cycled off so I managed to retrieve it. As I was walking back home, shaken up, a passerby on the street had seen what happened and asked if I was OK. He mentioned that he had seen this person before who'd taken someone else's phone on the same road. I did report it to the police but have had no updates. A couple of weeks later, I was not at home but my partner was and said he was looking out of the window and saw a man in a balaclava on a bike grab a phone from a lady's hand and cycle off. My partner called the police for the lady and they came to take a statement (that didn't happen in my case as he didn't actually manage to steal my phone). That is three instances of phone theft during the day with a man on a bike in a balaclava in the past few weeks. Everyone should be wary of having their phone out while walking as this doesn't seem to be abating.

[Dogkennelhillbilly]

That's a horrible experience. Thanks for raising awareness.

Edited March 18 by Dogkennelhillbilly

[Froglander]

So sorry to hear this. Any camera footage?

[NicoleM]

No unfortunately no footage, it all happened so quickly. Police also confirmed no CCTV where the incident happened.

Edited March 18 by NicoleM

[South East Lad]

Sorry to read this, the vast majority of street attacks/muggings are unreported sadly! these low lifes come from <removed inflammatory comment>, maybe they will educated themselves at some point lol! and not walk about with phone in their face when on the streets, muppets! 

Edited March 18 by Joe
Removed pointless inflammatory comment (possible troll). Warning given.

[Charlie15]

What time of day was it?

[NicoleM]

It was in the afternoon, around 1:30pm on a Sunday.

[malumbu]

11 minutes ago, South East Lad said:

Sorry to read this, the vast majority of street attacks/muggings are unreported sadly! these low lifes come from mostly local fatherless or an uncaring upbringing/school dropout council home dwellers and roam Dulwich streets to rob the new un-streetwise woke gentry newcomers, maybe they will educated themselves at some point lol! and not walk about with phone in their face when on the streets, muppets! 

Wow that is rather judgemental and borderline offensive.  I assume that you are being facetious (big word wokes use for humour)

[Chick]

Not borderline but highly offensive. What other prejudiced ideas do you have?

[Dulwich dweller]

41 minutes ago, South East Lad said:

he vast majority of street attacks/muggings are unreported sadly! these low lifes come from mostly local fatherless or an uncaring upbringing/school dropout council home dwellers

Lovely. Council home dwellers? Ignorance and snobbery is bliss eh!

We're being robbed blind and corruption is rife by those in power. They aren't ' school dropout council home dwellers 'are they? The last time i looked Boris and Co are all from private schools and owners of several and very expensive abodes. What's their excuse for being uncaring low lifes?

Many youths up to no good come from hard working homes and and not necessarily from single parent households. Peer and societal pressures often lead them down the wrong path. Materialism and not having the latest phone/ clothes is a driver for a lot of youth crime.

[South East Lad]

I can barely pay my bills and live on basic food stuffs.. and lived here forever, and know the facts! 

[South East Lad]

No excuse for the mugs hunting down and robbing new dwellers! I've lived here in council housing all my life! ..luckily my family had better sense and were lucky enough to move out of crime ridden London some years ago, and that gives me a comfortable peace of mind, I really do hope you all never succumb to the ever increasing muggings/attacks/etc that has become the norm in recent years.

[Dogkennelhillbilly]

Even the quality of the trolls has gone right down in recent years! In the old days, with a light touch and good timing, you could have got a good 5-6 pages out of that, maybe even a couple of forum flounces. This trolling here, though...sigh...it's just too heavy-handed and obvious. You didn't even connect it to some kind of culture war, like ULEZ or Brexit or vegans or working from home. Pitiful. 

[Dulwich dweller]

3 hours ago, South East Lad said:

I really do hope you all never succumb to the ever increasing muggings/attacks/etc that has become the norm in recent years.

It's been the norm all my life. Born and bred in working class south London and a teenager in the 80's. I'd say the streets are slightly safer now than they were back then. I've lived in Brixton, Clapham and Peckham for over 50 year, being mugged at some point was deemed a passage of rites and inevitable. It's shit that it happens at all but wasn't aware it's become the norm recently. Sadly a lot of youth trodding the wrong path are involved with gangs that supply weed and heavier stuff so they are making money. Another thing i can assure is that the people putting their money into huge consignments of coke and heroin that destroy lives and blight our communities aren't single parents from council estates nor dropouts.

 

I do voluntary work with life's young strays which include both current and reforming gang members. Many are roped in from a young age and join because of fear and peer pressure. It's certainly not a choice for many. You're lazy, tabloid style stereotyping is just way too simplistic.

[malumbu]

Very thoughtful and illuminating post.  I've never been attacked, and seen few incidents over the years.  Most worrying has been road rage and whilst I have been in the right, you learn when not to challenge someone (difficult at times to say can you please give me space, look before you turn and the like).  When I first came to London you'd see the odd brawl outside a pub, but it felt worse when I lived in more rural areas - bored youths and more tribal (the Abingdon youths having a brawl with Didcot). 

Had one break in, two cars and three bikes stolen whilst I have been in London, although all but one bike not particularly valuable.  Breaking into builders vans seems the current trend, and stealing some high end motors - the latter was common when I worked on this issue twenty years ago so hasn't been sorted.

But ultimately most of us are decent people, and our kids grow up to be decent people.  Although my peer group is people like you DD so I am somewhat biased!  How much greed/Thatchers children has changed things over the last forty years I don't know.  Of course nothing wrong with individuals wanting to be successful and to be a new owner/occupier in this area now you need to have some money behind you rather than us old hippies who moved in when it was a very different area.  And the high costs of renting too.

Good points on the gangs, sadly I don't know the solutions.  I work with younger children and sometimes wonder how it can go so wrong in a few years time. 

 

[Rockets]

Bottom-line is an increasing number of people are being targeted in the Dulwich area for their phones and personal belongings and each of those is a victim of a crime that can often have a long-lasting impact. My son's friend had his phone stolen near Dulwich Library as he got off the bus to visit us and now we have to meet him as he won't walk anywhere on his own.

 

When I was a kid in South London there was always the threat of violence but the worst that ever happened was some bruising and a fat lip - today the threat of being stabbed is very real and that can have a very traumatising impact on people. And the street robbers use this to their advantage - according to my son the fact the person I saw in a balaclava had a blue surgical glove on Dovercourt was to indicate that they are carrying a knife and willing to use it (to be fair the little squirt probably could not have mugged anyone without the threat of a knife such was his tiny build - without it most people would have laughed at him) and the worrying thing is the brazenness of the people doing it - that they are happy to do it in broad daylight and often target multiple people in quick succession because they know no-one will ever stop them and they will get away with it. When my wife had her phone snatched the police told her they knew the group of kids that we doing it in the Dulwich area but were pretty much powerless to stop them - unless they happened to catch them in the act.

[Pugwash]

At last week's SNT meeting- it was highlighted that phone theft was high in ED especially the area around ED Station. Best not to use phone in street, if you have to make a call go into a shop doorway. Keep phone in pocket or bag .

[Dogkennelhillbilly]

7 hours ago, Rockets said:

When I was a kid in South London there was always the threat of violence but the worst that ever happened was some bruising and a fat lip - today the threat of being stabbed is very real 

When I was a kid (which was not recently) I was robbed at knifepoint in Dulwich Park and stories of the Chelsea Smilers terrified every playground. Things are worse now but let's not romanticise the past either.

[Rockets]

Hardly romanticising the past, just highlighting the very real change in threat over the years - I bet when you were robbed at knifepoint there weren't weekly reports of stabbing deaths in London as there are today? The Chelsea Smilers were the thing of playground urban legend; zombie knives and kids being pointlessly murdered today are very much not.

 

And in Dulwich right now everyone knows someone who has been robbed and the problem is getting worse.

[Sephiroth]

There were threads exactly like this on this forum almost 20 years ago

 

same MO (bike swipes)

same reports of stabbings

And this was in the pre-2008 global financial crisis

 

14 years of austerity, Brexit, police reductions, cost of living etc and we could expect crime of most  kinds to be up - doesn't mean we should be blind to it but fixing it requires will and money

[Penguin68]

Both my daughters (now in their 30s) were mugged for phones as schoolchildren in ED. So were most of their friends! The levels of proffered violence may have been less. This seems to come in waves. But the police then did seem more interested/ engaged than is now being reported. 

[Rockets]

And it is definitely on the increase, here are the numbers from the last three years for Dulwich Village ward (Robbery is Theft with the use of force or a threat of force but does not include snatch thefts. Snatch theft get classed as other theft).

 

2021 (data from Jan 21 missing due to 3 year cut-off):

Robbery: 17

Theft from person: 4

Other theft: 45

 

2022

Robbery: 28

Theft from person:  23

Other theft: 96

 

2023

Robbery: 49

Theft from person: 35

Other theft: 77

 

January 2024

Robbery: 5

Theft from person: 7

Other theft: 6

[Dogkennelhillbilly]

14 hours ago, Rockets said:

Hardly romanticising the past, ... I bet when you were robbed at knifepoint there weren't weekly reports of stabbing deaths in London as there are today?

I dunno, I was a kid! I didn't really pay much attention to the South London Press. I bet if one trawled through the archives there would be plenty of crime reports. But in any case, the actual prevalence of crime, the (media) reporting of crime, and the popular perception of crime are three different things with only a weak connection to each other.

It is romanticising the past to suggest that the worst thing that ever happened was the kids got a fat lip. When was this idyllic decade? Not the 70s...or the 80s...or the 90s... In the 80s and early 90s around here it was practically a monthly ritual to be burgled or have your car (if you were lucky enough to have one) broken into.

Things certainly are bad at the moment - is anyone else noticing a lot of smashed car windows? - but they've been bad before too: 1977, 1985...

[Nigello]

Three (unflashy) car windows smashed, all in a row, on Court Lane near the junction with LL a few weeks ago. 

[jazzer]

8 hours ago, Sephiroth said:

There were threads exactly like this on this forum almost 20 years ago

 

same MO (bike swipes)

same reports of stabbings

And this was in the pre-2008 global financial crisis

 

14 years of austerity, Brexit, police reductions, cost of living etc and we could expect crime of most  kinds to be up - doesn't mean we should be blind to it but fixing it requires will and money

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