One evening in January I was coming home later than usual following a play rehearsal at school and decided to reward myself with a KFC before walking from Purley Downlands precinct back home – about a 15 minute fast walk. Some of the route is not well lit despite being a fairly major road but I’ve never been concerned as I’m a 6’3” male and, at the very least, I look as though I could outrun any would-be threats.
My confidence of not being approached, as it turned out, was misplaced and, as I reached the poorly lit road, two lads close to my own age of 17 crowded in on me and demanded I hand over my phone. I must have looked as disbelieving as I felt as they repeated their demand and backed it up with the threat of a knife.
I had a strong impression that the knife was more a threat than a reality. It could have been a costly misreading of the situation but my adrenalin had been pumping for some time and I was in no mood to roll over. Instead, I leapt into the road, thinking of flagging down a car. Unfortunately the driver mistook my flagging down gesture as a wave of apology for causing her to brake rather suddenly and drove on. I was still alone and still under threat so I changed tack and went into the nearest house acting as though I was home. In the belief that my first action on entering the house would be to call the police, the would-be muggers ran off.
On hearing my story the owner of the house very kindly offered to drive me the rest of the way home but, bolstered by my success, I assured him I was fine to walk.
I did call the police. Unsure whether an attempted mugging was a 999 call or not I dialled the non-emergency number (101) but was told I should call 999 as it was the sort of crime that the local police take very seriously.
Within 30 minutes of my call, the police arrived to take a statement and suggested a drive around the neighbourhood on the off-chance of spotting the two youths. The following week I received written confirmation of the incident report log and details of victim support.
While the support and encouragement of the police officers had done much to help me recover my equilibrium that evening, I was surprised at how unnerving the incident had been. The thought of repeating that same walk home every evening was suddenly slightly nerve-wracking and I appreciated how those who had experienced more dangerous threats might find it much more difficult to pick up their normal routines.
My first brush with violent crime was an eye-opener, both into the professionalism and dedication of the police service and the impact of crime on the lives of its victims. The officers who had responded to my callout told me of the increasing rate of muggings in Purley and how, in the same week, another person had been mugged who had also come from KFC indicating that these youths or, possibly, a wider gang, were targeting KFC. Even more worryingly, the 16-17 year olds who had tried to mug me were older than the majority of local muggers – most are as young as 13 or 14 years old.
Mugging has always been a problem, but it is an increasing problem in Purley, and it is one that can have a disproportionate impact on their victims’ lives.
