Mugging (with knives) on corner of Upper Tollington / Florence Road

ALexM

Hello SGers. New forum member here, previous lurker, 3.5 year SG resident.
I know it happens a lot but just an additional message about being really watchful walking home at night - my husband and I were walking home from the station to our house last night and were mugged by two men both with huge kitchen knives. It was right on the corner of Florence road (just past where that sweet wee black and white cat hangs out) beside the sign, right next to (surprise surprise) the steps up to the Parkland Walk. We obviously gave them what they wanted and they ran off up the steps so no one harmed which is the importnat thing, but it was pretty scary. I usually walk home alone and actually it is probably easier to be alone to see who is behind you than if you are talking to your mate / partner/dog.
Neither of us had a phone or wallet or anything else out, we were just walking along talking (ironically about how much we like living here as it happened!), and carrying a bag each.
We obviously reported it and SG police came straight over and have been brill. no one hurt and a lovely guy in his car stopped to see if we were ok so the world is still good
Be careful out there! We are reverting to the evil of Uber from now on I am afraid...
Alex x

p.s. they took a black nike gym bag of mine absolutely stuffed with my belongings / clothes etc - of no financial use to them at all I suspect but it had a turquoise moleskine notebook in it of some personal significance (and some nice DMs ) so if anyone sees that or a small black leather handbag dumped anywhere in the vicinty please do shout.

Arkady

Gah, sorry to hear that. Glad you're OK, and thanks for the heads-up.

krappyrubsnif

This fills me with gloom. Carrying a knife in any circumstances should be a mandatory five year sentence and possibly castration. Or would that be too lenient?

Scruffy

I must admit, my initial reaction to reading this was a tad visceral (agreeing with @krappyrubsnif , with the added detail of using the mugger's own knife made blunt and rusty for the castration). It is dispiriting to read that they had knives and were confident enough to mug a couple.

Very likely that any of your property of no value to them was dumped on the parkland walk, which is probably an excellent escape route for them.

Would it do any harm to post your descriptions of the muggers here, just in case they're regulars around the parkland walk entrances??

ALexM

Thanks all. We did look along Parkland Walk and down various embankments and in the park - no luck, although it is only once you start looking for things in the bushes / undergrowth / weeds that you realise how much of it there is.

We are planning to write to council - without holding out much hope - to gently suggest slightly better lighting and / or installing some CCTV at that corner. I know a neighbour was mugged on Oxford Road previously too so the darkness around those (dimly lit, conservation) areas must be attractive to them.

Descriptions probably not much use - two men, didn't seem overly young (i.e.not 'kids') but not more than 30 don't think. Both hooded, one with a scarf over face, one without. One white guy one black guy. As I say, could describe half of the ward!

I guess just watch out for guys in twos or otherwise covering their faces on Woodstock / Ennis/ Oxford Roads and Upper Tollington Park and be careful near all the entrances to the PW where they can run off and where there is no traffic and no cameras. Given the darkness and the weather at the moment pretty much all of us are hooded so that's not much use!

Police seem to do ASB patrols around those areas so are aware of issues.

gardener-joe

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ALexM

Said they would check CCTV and drive past and just said they do tell people to be careful walking home at night etc but they couldn't really give any more advice as there were no risk factors in what we were doing except it being late(-ish). We were pleased they were able to come round at all really given how under resourced they are. Neither us or they had any expectation of them being caught, but they recommend you register all your stuff as yours on immobilise so if it turns up somewhere along the line they will know it is stolen and who it belonged to.

gardener-joe

[...]

ALexM

A quick heads up from our small street grapevine that there was another mugging on Woodstock/Oxford road by someone with a knife two days ago, this time about 7pm in the evening. Apparently the man threatened two separate people, robbed one, and this was all in sight of a third. Ran off into the parkland walk /park.

Sure you may all also have seen the article yesterday about cyclists being mugged at knifepoint in the park.

https://www.islingtongazette.co.uk/news/crime-court/cyclists-robbed-at-knifepoint-in-finsbury-park-gates-locked-iuliana-tudos-murder-rape-police-1-5934563

seems to be a recurring issue in the same particular area so worthwhile being extra vigilant there. police are always quick to arrive afterwards but without any CCTV they seem to struggle (in our case closing the case in a few days citing in part the lack of footage to help them ID perpetrators).