A blind BBC reporter fought off and detained a mugger who snatched his mobile phone in London in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
Sean Dilley sustained several cuts and injured his elbow during the incident, which happened just before 6am, while he was on a break during a night shift.
A person riding a bike stole the phone near the BBC’s New Broadcasting House. Dilley sensed that his attacker was next to him and managed to jump towards him and restrain his arms, retrieving his iPhone and using a voice assistant on the device to call 999.
As he waited for the police, another person arrived and offered to help. The news correspondent told the mugger he would let him go providing they left immediately.
Dilley, project lead for the BBC’s Reframing Disability Programme, wrote on Twitter: “A man on a bike just SNATCHED and stole my iPhone from my hand, wrong blind person, wrong day.
“Jumped on him, safely detained and got my phone back … Quite a few cuts and bruises, but tweeting on the phone he stole (and I recovered).”
He later added: “So everyone is clear, my phone was snatched from me. It was taken from my possession, and the robber made off.
So everyone is clear, my phone was snatched from me. It was taken from my possession, and the robber made off. The robbery was complete. I gave immediate chase. And recovered it after the robbery. And attempted robbery would be one where the item has not been taken. https://t.co/PiT2kSaMq5
— Sean Dilley NEWS (@seandilleyNEWS) December 27, 2022
n”,”url”:”https://twitter.com/seandilleyNEWS/status/1607748432977956870″,”id”:”1607748432977956870″,”hasMedia”:false,”role”:”inline”,”isThirdPartyTracking”:false,”source”:”Twitter”,”elementId”:”2d60559d-0365-4928-a3ed-e0a43f8a3355″}}”>
So everyone is clear, my phone was snatched from me. It was taken from my possession, and the robber made off. The robbery was complete. I gave immediate chase. And recovered it after the robbery. And attempted robbery would be one where the item has not been taken. https://t.co/PiT2kSaMq5
— Sean Dilley NEWS (@seandilleyNEWS) December 27, 2022
“The robbery was complete. I gave immediate chase. And recovered it after the robbery. And attempted robbery would be one where the item has not been taken.”
Dilley has described his own actions as “stupid” and advised anybody in a similar situation to call the police.
A member of the public is allowed to attempt an arrest if they suspect a serious criminal act is taking place and they intend to deliver the suspect to the custody of police as soon as possible.
The Metropolitan police are investigating the incident as an attempted robbery and are appealing for witnesses to what happened in Bolsover Street, central London.
The witness who stopped to help told police that the person ran off in the direction of Greenwell Street. Anyone with information should call 101 quoting CAD 1115/27Dec.
