5pm teen mugging on Balham High Road Post Reply

[Cinderalla]

Just witnessed 3 youths casually pull up covid masks, approach a  group of three teenagers on the stretch of Balham High Road between Gails and the Co-op, before mugging the (only) male teenager. Do please encourage your children to be alert. It was broad daylight and the pavement was busy (5pm) but this obviously didn't sway them. If anyone has teens please tell them to be vigilant. 

[Goldhawk]

Did you intervene?
 

[Nappyvalleynanny1]

Someone posted on here last week about a similar incident on Ritherdon road. Perhaps the same group doing it. Maybe a local shop/ co- op have cctv that could be shown to police or shared.

[frazzledworkingmum]

The boy mugged was my son. I am not clear from above if it was Cinderella or Starfish1 that witnessed the events. But if anyone is willing to add to our police witness statement, then please do get in touch. The police were great, but said this is not a one off and it is boys that are being targeted. Thanks

[Cinderalla]

Apologies I have two accounts as I created one for anonymity for a sensitive question a while back.

To answer the question about reporting it.

No I didn't.

They were around 20 metres ahead of me walking towards Tooting, it was really subtle and once they'd mugged the lad they then turned and walked back past me towards Balham.

As they went past me I was still trying to work out if they had actually mugged him as although it didn't look like a friendly encounter there was no obvious contact between the three lads and the mugged boy.

The three who had been mugged (well one plus the two girls) hurried along towards Tooting quickly and then another person, who was about ten metres ahead of me, tried to stop them to talk but they wouldn't stop walking and she then stopped. I approached her and asked if that had been a mugging.

She said yes it had but the lad didn't want to do anything, she'd offered to call the police, and by now the three people who had been mugged were by Rutherford House and the muggers were back by Travelodge.

We discussed calling the police but it was obvious by the second that both groups were well apart.

I went back up Balham High Road to see if I could see them but they'd disappeared.

So no I didn't, I think the most shocking thing was how casual it was, they could have been asking him for the time.

[Mum2Monkey]

Sadly there have been quite a large number of these muggings recently. Group of lads with black balaclava/ masks targeting other boys for the most part. Ritherdon road, Drakefield Road, Streathbourne road, High Road. The police are aware and have stepped up patrols. (I know of maybe 10 ish).

I am on a Whatsapp group with parents of a couple of boys who have been mugged and they have said the police have genuinely been great and were seconds away from catching them at one point.

They are asking everyone to call 111 / 999 (if mugging in progress). I did have the reference number but I can't find it now. Maybe someone else can add it.

[dudette]

Cinderella - please could you provide a description of the muggers?

[Westcoastmom]

Sadly, this may not be confined to that area: We live between the commons, and our 11-year-old was assaulted by two older boys in black hoodies and black masks. They first approached him near the Tesco Express on Battersea Rise to ask if he knew what time it was. They must have followed him around the corner to Clapham Common West Side where they stopped him again and demanded his phone, threatened to stab him, pushed him to the ground, and kicked him a few times. They ran off when cars began honking, and a kind bystander intervened. The police have been investigating, but unfortunately, the CCTV footage they have been able to obtain has been of poor quality and not helpful.

[Beachboys]

Of the many troubling issues that these muggings raise, I think it's worth underscoring how casual these encounters look to passersby like Cinderalla said. (Except, obviously, for Westcoastmom's son -- I'm so sorry that happened to him and I hope he's okay.)

My two boys, 13 and 11, were mugged on Wandsworth Common on the way back from school last month. It happened on the footpath between Trinity Road and Windmill Road, in daylight and while there were other people about. Three youths surrounded them, shoved them and demanded their phones. After they handed the phones over, my older son had the presence of mind to ask a pair of passersby for help and they kindly intervened. In their witness statements afterwards, the passersby noted -- just like Cinderalla -- that they initially had no idea a robbery was taking place. They just saw a group of boys huddled together and some jostling. 

I wonder if that's partly why the perpetrators feel they can get away with it. 

[dimelda]

Is it not more sensible - certainly safer - for kids NOT to take their phones to school?   Far from making them safer - endlessly touted as a reason for their use - it actually makes them more at risk.  

[avocado]

Couldn’t agree with dimelda more. Ashcroft Academy have a successful ban on phones. Students aren’t even allowed them switched off! This fact is well known in the area and so their students are never mugged. If it’s a common occurrence in a particular school, might be worth that school considering a similar approach. Another reason to get rid of them!

I’m sorry to hear about the muggings described above and I hope the perpetrators are caught soon.

[Goldhawk]

Graveney also bans phones but it didn't stop muggings occurring outside school
 

[Sagittarius]

Sadly, not having anything to "give" to the muggers doesn't always end well. A couple of years ago a Graveney student was punched in the face because he had no phone or money on him... 

[dimelda]

Hi, Goldhawk.  You say that Graveney bans phones .. I'm presuming you mean (but perhaps I'm wrong) that the kids, quite rightly, aren't allowed to use them in the school itself.   But, travelling to and from the school, do the kids still carry them?  This is where they'll be mugged ... on the streets.  If schools could introduce a policy whereby the pupils were told never to bring mobiles to the school, i.e. to leave them at home, there'd definitely be fewer muggings.  But I guess all sorts of legal implications would arise if this were the policy.  Perhaps a lawyer reading this could enlighten us on the subject.

 

[Goldhawk]

No it's an outright ban - no phones are to be brought to school - so no phones for travelling
Obviously some kids break the rules and some parents ask for permission if travelling long distances

The muggers would probably move on to us adults if the kids didn't have phones to steal!