Moped criminals have tried to smash a Stroud Green Road estate agent four times in the past month.
Liberty Estate Agents, around the corner from Finsbury Park station, said raiders tried to break in three times between October 15 and 16.
And last week, a moped crook took it a step further by entering the shop armed with a hammer. He is said to have told staff: “You know what we’ve come for.”
Michael Wilson, management executive of Liberty, reckons he wanted to nick the shop’s expensive Apple computers. But after the attempted raids in October, the pro-active estate agent had moved the machines into storage while the security system was updated. He is said to have scarpered when he couldn’t see any computers.
Nonetheless, it’s the latest in an emerging trend of shops being targeted in Islington’s moped crime epidemic. On October 17, a moped passenger stormed Bread and Bean cafe in Junction Road, Archway, stealing a customer’s laptop before getting away on the back of the vehicle. The same happened at Rustique cafe in Fortess Road, Tufnell Park, on Tuesday last week.
Mr Wilson told the Gazette: “There have been attempts, very serious attempts, to rob us. We have brand spanking new offices in Stroud Green Road, which we have moved to from Wells Terrace and cost a lot of money.
“The first was 2am on a Sunday, ram raiders who tried to get into the office. As it happens, they were chased off by a local minicab firm.
“The next day, they returned twice, seriously damaging the front door and totally smashing one of the display windows. They didn’t get into the offices, though, which of course we were very pleased about.”
Of the incident last week, Mr Wilson said: “They are so brazen that one actually tried it in daylight. In the middle of the day, a guy from the back of a scooter came in with a hammer, saying: ‘You know what we’ve come for’.
“But we had actually removed the computers from the office. Our staff are now working on little tablets.
“What’s so serious is they are so blatant, and continue trying. It seems they are prepared to use violence.
“We are updating our security in a very specific way, and we will be back on the proper computers soon.”
He added: “It’s happening all the time. I personally witnessed an incident in Wells Terrace recently: a girl was sat at the bus stop, a scooter got on the pavement and her phone was gone in seconds.”
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