Yet another mugging on St John's Road Post Reply

[Monkey_mami]

My 16yo son was mugged this Wednesday around 4:35pm on St. John’s Road close to M&S. He had his phone in his pocket, was not wearing headphones and was with 2 friends on a busy street when it happened. He was manhandled a bit by three muggers after they took cash from one of his friends and threatened to “shank” him though he did not see a knife. He had his phone and passcode taken but is thankfully ok. The police were brilliant, responded within minutes and liaised with two unmarked units on site, then took my son and husband back to St. John’s Road to try and identify the culprits as we were still tracking his phone. Two individuals were searched but released as no stolen phones were found on them.

It sadly seems like these occurrences have become the norm around here so I wanted to share a few facts and recommendations I hope some might find helpful:

Most incidents seem to happen in the vicinity of Clapham Junction, especially on St. John’s Road and mostly target secondary school boys. They happen very quickly, just a couple of minutes. Usually no one intervenes/notices/stops to help.

The criminals are teenagers themselves, around 16-17, black, with dreadlocks, dressed in dark clothing, around 5’9-5’10” with no discernible accents or other distinguishing facial hair or features.

They initially approach asking for the time or asking their age to try and distract/engage, then quickly crowd their victim onto the side of a building or, in my son's case, grabbed from behind and dragged around the corner. Ironically, minutes after this incident the same group approached my 14-yo son who pretended not to understand and quickly sidestepped and hurried off.

They seem to be after newer model devices (a friend’s son was handed back his Huawei phone, another his damaged iPhone) or cash.

Given the amount of knife crime in London, should your child find himself in a situation like this and cannot avoid engaging when approached or can’t get other people’s attention, its best not to fight back and just hand over their phones. If they happen to witness an incident they should notify nearby security if at all possible (there was a police car parked nearby yesterday).

The security settings I had on the iPhone allowed us to track it for a bit longer and will hopefully make it at least somewhat difficult for the thieves to use. I am sharing below for anyone interested:

* Turn on FindMy on your iPhone, you can log in via icloud.com or any other iPhone with your apple ID and track the phone or mark it as lost. NB, all cards on Apple Pay are immediately disabled so no need to cancel if the physical card was not stolen as well. Additionally, if you then activate Erase This Device all cards on Apple Pay are immediately removed from the device.

* Restrict ability to make changes to passcode and account settings via Settings/Screen Time/Content& Privacy Restrictions so that account cannot be removed from device. Helpful video on how to do it here: Apparently iOS 17.3 update which will be rolled out soon will have a Stolen Device Protection feature which will require Face ID to make any account changes.

* Turn off Location Services (also under Screen Time/Content& Privacy Restrictions), to prevent thieves from disabling tracking via Find My or other apps.

* Keep a record of the device’s IMEI number. This number can be used to assist the police in tracking stolen phones and rendering them useless for onward sale. (Settings/General/About or dial *#06#, and a save screen shot).

* Turn on two-factor authentication and/or another trusted device to ensure you can limit access to your Apple ID account.

* Register your devices with the UK National Property Register https://www.immobilise.com/

Finally, although kind of obvious, make sure your kid knows your mobile number so they can reach you if their phone has been stolen or lost. I have been told some kids are carrying older iPhones as decoy in case they are stopped.

Stay safe everyone!

[SouthfieldsAcademy]

Thank you for sharing this - it's really useful.

In case like me, you found the video too quick to act upon, here is what he advised
Go to screentime under settings, turn it on, confirm it is your phone.  Click content & privacy to turn it on.  Check don't allow passcode changes.  Do the same for account changes.  Go to Use Screen time.  Enter another passcode (different to your phone code).

[papagena]

My son has been mugged twice in the last 3 weeks between the commons  - first time 4.30pm on Northcote Road just before Christmas, forced to hand over his bike and phone by two muggers.

Then last night top of Broomwood road around 8.30pm near Alfriston road by one mugger on a Lime Bike who took his coat and his and his friend's phones. Police came quickly and said we were one of 9 muggings just yesterday evening.


 

[Denwand]

These muggings have seem to have increased lately with the same M.O.

I witnessed two unmarked police cars stop a group of about 6 youths on Bqttersea Rise outside Hawkins Forge about
8pm on Friday 12th January - very dramatic as the two cars mounted the pavement each side of the group to cut of their escape.

I mention this because I read on NVN that when someone's teenage son was mugged nearby the oher day, there was a fast responce by police in "2 unmarked Police cars"

This is heartening because the Police seem to have a team in the area looking out for these theives and dealing with reports systematically.

[shopping]

Thanks for alerting everyone.

Re stolen phones, I recently was looking for a new phone and was surprised at the number of dodgy ads on Facebook Marketplace apparently unregulated by the site.
Some vintage selling sites forbid selling of phones, but people still post saying they're selling a phone case, with a picture of a phone, but the price of a phone.

The phones on FB were obviously priced very low, no proper details about the phone, a new FB 'profile' recently set up so no photos or contacts visible etc if you enquire about item you get inadequate or no reply
ads say things like 'needs to go' and one ad even blatantly said it was found!

I do think FB and other online sites should moderate and not give a market for this.
Glad your son was ok in the end.

[Ratski]

Vigilante groups seem to be the only way to go these days. Get a group together and arm yourselves with baseball bats and zombie knives and patrol the area.