Thefts, phone snatching, intimidation in London

[OztoLdn]

Hi, we moved from Sydney to London (Hither Green) 4 months ago.
Weekly I see at least 1/2 posts of someone saying that their phone has been either snatched or they were intimidated or even shown a knife for their phones.
I have a daughter who will start secondary school next year and this makes me really nervous.
Does this happen everywhere in London? More in some areas than others?
Are there other areas in South East zone 3/4 a little more safe where perhaps this doesn’t happen that often?
Thank you

I’m zone 2 SE London and it’s rife here too, unfortunately. Same scrotes all over the area doing it.

It happened to a colleague of mine in Central London recently.

Just try not to have your phone out on the street.

I lived in London for 25 years. In Brixton no less. The worst I experienced was someone tried to steal my purse from my open bag while queuing to get in a bus on Oxford Street. A woman behind me slapped his hand and told him to fuck off.

I also lived in Sydney for 2 years. A plum little serviced apartment in the Rocks. I experienced pick pockets, bag snatches, street fights and my debit card was cloned three bloody times where they cleaned out my account.

Joining Facebook pages is literally like street chatter. You will hear far more on there than you will ever experience.

Jesus. Sad to say in that case New York is safer than London.

I'm just back and I wasn't sure what the deal was going to be there, having spent a lot of time in London years back I expected to have to do as other OP's have described.

But nope, everyone was walking around phones out all the time, and I heard of not one single person having one taken, not around me, not at any place I visited, not at the hotel. People actively walking around using Google Maps perfectly safely.

I'm in that one and other FB groups from other areas including Blackehath, Lee, Downham, Beckenham, Ladywell, Lewisham. We have a fixed term rental until December next year so we could move to a different area after that if needed.

I lived in London for 25 years. In Brixton no less.

Brixton in the 80s and early 90s was quite different to Brixton in the late 90s/00s though 😆

I lived in Canada Water, and it was RIFE there, really awful. Moved to Forest Hill and it was not a prob at all, now in Shirley, Croydon and also not an issue here.

I’ve lived in London and out and work in a related field and while it happens everywhere, this is definitely more of a London thing. More pedestrians, people on and off trains and buses and standing around waiting or looking a bit lost or just generally where they are easy to get at. Knife crime has increased where I live now but is still very rare compared to any of the big cities, London especially.

I lived 12 years in Sydney and was/am in several FB groups and never heard of phone snatching, or violent robberies, car theft yes.
I take all my precautions when I'm out but I have an 11 year old daughter who will soon want more independence as she is heading to secondary school, I can teach her about being street safe but I also hear/read about kids robbing other kids with knives, usually in the middle of the day, they don't seem to care and of course, they target people who can't defend themselves.

They are just ‘going about their daily business’ according to a London Member of Parliament. So don’t make a fuss about it.

London is a fantastic city but I’ve experience petty crime in every city I’ve visited / it just seems to be a part of city life and London is way better than many European cities which are rife with pick pockets etc.

It’s true that phones can get snatched from hands whilst walking in London, just don’t walk with phone out in the street and you’ll be fine.

I think statistically if you’re a black boy aged 16-25 you’re most likely to be the victim of crime whilst it’s middle aged white women who fear it most but experience it least!

I must say that all the SE London groups I'm part of love making a huge deal out of this stuff, especially if they also get the opportunity to say it wasn't like this 30 years ago (which I HIGHLY doubt).

There is absolutely more of these thefts than usual but if you look for the real bona fide 'this happened to me personally' posts there are a lot fewer than the ones about seeing it happen (because more than one person could have seen it) or have heard about it happening.

My teenaged kids go to school in this area and in the 7ish years that they've been walking to school there have been one or two events that scared them but didn't happen to them personally. Mostly, to be honest, it has been drunk old men behaving inappropriately rather than knife-wielding people. I'm not going to pretend it doesn't happen but the risk is low.

I live outside the M25 near the end of the tube line and it's on the increase here aswell. It usually seems to be people who've travelled out from London.

@Twixfixing It’s very common even in the leafy parts. Some of the outer boroughs are probably safer than inner ones but phone snatching is everywhere.

I never felt safe out late in the leafy suburbs, I feel much safer here in Zone 2

I'm not far from you OP and my sense is that a small number of criminals do a particular circuit for a time, and then move on to the next. So a dozen phones are stolen around Mountsfield Park one week, then the next week it's the skyscrapery area by Lewisham Station, the next it's the pedestrianised bit of Brockley and so on.

I do think there's a lot of it about at the moment. I try not use my phone when walking along the street, and jog with a bumbag.

Exactly. That's my point. Poor reputation but it was safe as houses.

I live in one of the safest areas there is. But if you read it Facebook pages you'd think otherwise!
What cringe there is is mainly vehicle theft, but the hysteria around it makes it sound like we live in the grottiest bit of the country.

Don't go by Facebook pages. It's easy enough to find the facts about the actual crime rate and the types of offences in your area.

Here you go. You can always search other areas for comparison. But theft from the person figures very low.

www.police.uk/pu/your-area/metropolitan-police-service/hither-green/?tab=Statistics

OP, for what it’s worth, I have teen girls and boys who have been coming and going around central London for several years now.

You can’t clip their wings in case something happens … generally, London is great for teens. There might be a bit more risk of theft but really violent crimes are rare, gun crime in particular unless your kid is in a gang.

it’s just a normal big city.

disconnect from the online groups, they are pretty much good for nothing apart from frothing (IMHO)

Hi OP welcome to the people's Republic of South London. I'm not far from you. I'm startled by all the folk on here saying how dangerous London is. I've lived here for more than 30 years and never seen or been part of a violent or even scary crime. Apart from some very aggressive police behaviour in the 1980s. Although to be fair the demos I was on had both taken a bit of a turn at the time.
I've lived all over, including a bit of East London that was and remains a very high crime area. I worked in Elephant and Castle for years and also never saw any crime. At all.
I did see a lady steal two bottles of champagne in Brixton Marks and Spencer once.
There are some things that are unsafe in London, some busy streets and motor vehicles driven very badly. And overcrowding on train platforms in rush hour.
Any big city will have its faults. But I'm a fan of Sherlock Holmes and other victorian fiction and clearly London is a lot safer and less violent now than it was back then.
I deleted the app next door even though I did enjoy it because all the crime chat was making me paranoid. Maybe you could give up on Facebook for a bit?

@davros I’m talking statistics though…

@Twixfixing fair play

@OztoLdn I live in grove park so very close to you and honestly despite being a crap area regarding fly tipping, drunkenness etc, I've not seen any actual crime in the decade I've lived here. I've lived all over SE london for 15 years and have never felt unsafe. I don't think it's the best area to raise teens but Hither Green is nicer. I wouldn't worry about it! Stay off those FB groups.