The Lemon Fool

Hi
Friend of mine is in a big panic about an armed robbery which apparently took place in Woodford, border of London/ Essex, with the family at home watching TV, one member held at gunpoint, another threatened with a different weapon.

I'm afraid I immediately wondered if it was correct as she seems to have the info from social media and quite a few things seem off. She is very scared, she has toddlers.

I had a look online and can't find anything but I suppose something so serious could be kept out of the media?

I don't want to ask for more details as she is terrified but I wondered if it was correct and thought Fools might have seen reports. Or not, which would be ideal.

It was recently put on social media that a chap with a knife was wandering my street. A neighbour contacted police and people looked at doorbell cam footage. it was just a social media rumour, put about by someone for fun I guess.

Surely the place to look would be the local paper? They'll report serious crime in the area.

Or just google [the area] robbery. The local papers will be among your top results. Alongside national media if they've reported it. Of course you might just find old stories, in which case you infer there isn't a new story.

Uncle, Nothing in either that I can find - local paper online, extensive google search, Twitter search

She is absolutely terrified and luckily, she hasn't phoned my mum to tell her. mum has a burglar alarm but will be terrified too. I have asked our friend not to say anything to mum.

Mum is the sort who used to fetch us all in from the garden, including my dad, by 7pm on a summer evening. Every door and window is double checked as soon as dark falls in winter. That won't matter to someone with a gun though.

I hope it's not a real incident for selfish reasons as well as general ones.

WRT checking local paper etc I woudnt hold your breath. 'Round here it seems the paper trawls social media for stories which it then follows up. So if this alleged armed robbery isnt on social media, QED it wont be in the local paper either.

Ask the local police. They may of course neither confirm not deny if there is an ongoing investigation... but they may also confirm its rubbish.

didds

A friend who used to live in Loughton, a couple of miles away, said it was a favourite retirement haunt for old-style East End gangster families of the Kray persuasion. And that "family rivalries" were not unknown, and that " private stuff" did happen.

One could imagine how that sort of thing might not make it into the newspapers. For one thing, press coverage might inadvertently blow the lid on an ongoing police investigation. But household robbery with a firearm carries such a very long prison sentence in Britain that any criminal would have to be a bit stupid to risk doing it to a complete stranger.

I don't think your friend has anything to worry about, even if the rumour happens to be true. Although you might not choose to tell her that there are such people in the neighbourhood. Er, possibly......

BJ

BJ "But household robbery with a firearm carries such a very long prison sentence in Britain that any criminal would have to be a bit stupid to risk doing it to a complete stranger. "

Yes. i'm in a rough part of London and when it happens here, it's always about drugs or gangs or both.

When I say "friend" she's actually someone I know through my mum. It never seems to occur to her that mum is an elderly woman and some of the stuff she tells her is stuff I find too revolting to discuss.

She has no filter and not a lot of critical thinking going on, so it's possible she even read something that has no corroboration and enjoys flapping about it.

bungeejumper wrote:But household robbery with a firearm carries such a very long prison sentence in Britain that any criminal would have to be a bit stupid to risk doing it to a complete stranger.

BJ

The trouble is that criminals do tend to be a bit stupid.

It almost certainly didn't happen. I've had a look for information, and there is none on the internet, so it's social media fluff.

However, I think you should try to get to the bottom of what spooked her so much. The reality of armed robberies is that you are going to give the robbers what ever they ask for because you and your children are worth much more than anything they can take. Give them what they want and they go away. Armed robbers tend to be after valuables that they know are present in the house, or the keys to an expensive car on the drive (that they already have cloned plates for). If you don't have anything valuable, or don't let anyone know you have anything valuable, armed robbers are not going to call on the off-chance, unless you live in an ostentatious house.

There may be precautions she can take such as security locks for the doors and a monitored alarm with a panic button, but any security worth having is very expensive.

Is a club hammer expensive ?

tacpot12 wrote:It almost certainly didn't happen. I've had a look for information, and there is none on the internet, so it's social media fluff.

However, I think you should try to get to the bottom of what spooked her so much. The reality of armed robberies is that you are going to give the robbers what ever they ask for because you and your children are worth much more than anything they can take. Give them what they want and they go away. Armed robbers tend to be after valuables that they know are present in the house, or the keys to an expensive car on the drive (that they already have cloned plates for). If you don't have anything valuable, or don't let anyone know you have anything valuable, armed robbers are not going to call on the off-chance, unless you live in an ostentatious house.

There may be precautions she can take such as security locks for the doors and a monitored alarm with a panic button, but any security worth having is very expensive.

I think the anxiety was fed in part by the fact that the family were in and subsequently, the alarm not on.

Like me, she uses the Tube and I don't want to say it but the chances of something happening there are probably the same but she doesn't worry about that.

tacpot12 wrote:It almost certainly didn't happen. I've had a look for information, and there is none on the internet, so it's social media fluff.

My dear chap, don't take this the wrong way, but I think perhaps you're being a bit too trusting. Newspapers in the UK are required to self-regulate, particularly with regard to crime reporting. That means that if the police don't want a crime story published - typically because the matter forms part of a wider investigation - then it won't be published.

It sounds undemocratic (whatever happened to the "public interest"?), but the plod have their reasons for insisting on this. Countless criminal trials have collapsed over the years because they've been leaked into the public domain and somebody's been prejudiced. At best, a newspaper that ignores this implicit "guidance" is likely to find that its access to the police news desk is constrained, and that it won't be getting first dibs at the juiciest stories for a while. At worst, it may be prosecuted for contempt.

Now, take a look at a typical local news website and count how many of the stories it contains have been sourced in some way from police info desks. More than half, in our area. Are you still surprised that major crime stories don't always appear in print?

BJ (in the news business for 40 years, and counting....)

Sunnypad wrote:

tacpot12 wrote:It almost certainly didn't happen. I've had a look for information, and there is none on the internet, so it's social media fluff.

However, I think you should try to get to the bottom of what spooked her so much. The reality of armed robberies is that you are going to give the robbers what ever they ask for because you and your children are worth much more than anything they can take. Give them what they want and they go away. Armed robbers tend to be after valuables that they know are present in the house, or the keys to an expensive car on the drive (that they already have cloned plates for). If you don't have anything valuable, or don't let anyone know you have anything valuable, armed robbers are not going to call on the off-chance, unless you live in an ostentatious house.

There may be precautions she can take such as security locks for the doors and a monitored alarm with a panic button, but any security worth having is very expensive.

I think the anxiety was fed in part by the fact that the family were in and subsequently, the alarm not on.

Like me, she uses the Tube and I don't want to say it but the chances of something happening there are probably the same but she doesn't worry about that.

I reckon it's worth contacting the local rozzers to see what advice they can give you about helping your friend with her concerns

You'll be able to do so online... possibly here by the info you've given: https://www.met.police.uk/a/your-area/met/redbridge/south-woodford/

From reporting a crime, anti-social behaviour or neighbourhood concerns to getting in touch with an officer, you can contact your local team here.

They're probably already aware of the gossip if it's circulating on social media and they'll have a decent idea of how to put it in to perspective; it's a rare crime but a bloody frightening one.

- sd

You could use the nextdoor app - neighbours love this stuff and would definitely be on there if it happened.

I really can't see it being a massive concern to most people though. If you're a premier league footballer or mixing with dodgy people that know you have cash or valuables at home - then it's more of a concern.

If you want to see the local crimes in your area, you can use https://www.ourwatch.org.uk/crime-prevention/crime-prevention/crime-map?address= which shows crimes within a mile of whatever postcode you put in.

Might be worth checking a few postcodes before showing it to somebody who's worried, just in case there is actually something worrying to see!

VRD

I wonder if this is relevant to the OPs question, seems to be something that happened over the last couple of weeks but has been hushed up.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/16508441 ... d-machete/

I hasten to add that I am not a regular reader of the sun, noticed a front-page headline this morning and it brought this thread to mind.

malkymoo wrote:I wonder if this is relevant to the OPs question, seems to be something that happened over the last couple of weeks but has been hushed up.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/16508441 ... d-machete/

I hasten to add that I am not a regular reader of the sun, noticed a front-page headline this morning and it brought this thread to mind.

No, they're not a footballer.

Also it's not secluded, more a "property off the high street" about ten mins walk from the Tube.

I'm increasingly convinced it's drug related. Anyway, word got round as it does. Mum is very worried but she is trying not to go on about it. We saw a drug deal done openly in front of us just off the High Street the other day. She is never convinced by any mention of drugs but I think after seeing that, even she realises her local area has changed!

vrdiver wrote:If you want to see the local crimes in your area, you can use https://www.ourwatch.org.uk/crime-prevention/crime-prevention/crime-map?address= which shows crimes within a mile of whatever postcode you put in.

That only seems to show a maximum of one crime per location (circle) on the map. They say they get their info from http://www.police.uk and that seems a better source of information, as their crime map shows all the crimes in a spot and gives further details on them.

Start here: https://www.police.uk/pu/your-area/