How I fought 8 bike bandits who tried to rob me and broke my leg
A BUSINESSWOMAN targeted by a vicious gang of eight robbers on powerful mopeds last night told how she fought them off, kicking one attacker so hard she shattered her ankle.
Alexandra Meyers’s dramatic account comes amid a terrifying ‘epidemic’ of violence and crime launched from two-wheeled vehicles. They include a series of horrific acid attacks in London on Thursday, and the murder early yesterday of a 31-year-old man.
Gangs of robbers on mopeds and pedal cycles now commit up to 50,000 crimes a year in London alone, usually snatching mobile phones, say police. Officers are said to be growing frustrated that strict rules prevent them from giving chase if robbers remove their crash helmets – because of concern for the offenders’ safety.
Ms Meyers, a fashion and luxury creative consultant and former UK communications director for jewellers Tiffany & Co, was attacked in broad daylight as she walked her dog through a leafy square in West London.
The raiders struck in force. Three of the powerful machines – each carrying two leather-clad riders in helmets with dark visors – mounted the pavement.
Ms Meyers said she would have handed over her valuable watch – the robbers’ target – but was never given the chance and only struck back in fear of her life because the men tried to drag her along behind a speeding bike.
A fourth machine, also carrying two men, hung back to block the road and she said she owes her life to a mystery Good Samaritan who drove his car straight at the attackers, which gave her the chance to flee.
Ms Meyers, 41, recalled: ‘I was chatting to a friend on the phone when a powerful-looking moped with two men aboard came up on to the pavement, quite slowly.
‘They stopped abruptly in front of me and just grabbed my left hand with the phone in it and tried to get it. I instinctively did not let go. Then they saw I had a watch on and tried to pull it off but the metal bracelet had a security clasp preventing it coming off my wrist.
‘At that moment another moped came up next to me and I heard a sound behind me when another pair appeared on a third bike. I was cornered with my back to the wall.’
Often in such incidents, as the rider mounts the pavement, the pillion passenger reaches out to grab a mobile phone from the victim. More worryingly, some robbers, such as those spotted near the BBC’s Central London headquarters in May, wielded a hammer and a crowbar to terrorise victims.
In April, another gang forced a man from his motorcycle in East London by spraying a fire extinguisher in his face, while last month, a woman who refused to let go of her handbag was dragged down the length of a street in Streatham, South London.
In Ms Meyers’s case, the robbers went into a seemingly wellpractised routine.
‘It was like a military operation,’ she recalled. ‘None of them said a word throughout, which made it more sinister. It was all too fast to take in. If they’d asked me for my watch, I’d have handed it over, but instead they just kept yanking my arm and the watch, then the bike with the guy holding my arm began to move off, which would have dragged me on to the road.
‘The only alternative to fighting was losing my arm or possibly my life as they wouldn’t let go. I kicked as hard as I could.’
As Ms Meyers fell to the pavement, she realised she was now surrounded by six men. ‘I remember seeing a car mounting the kerb and knocking the bike behind me over. That is what gave me a chance to start running.
‘I could feel that I’d broken my ankle. I saw the gang was coming back for me and I noticed a black cab. I threw myself into the road, pleading with the driver to stop.’
Doctors confirmed Ms Meyers’s fears – the ankle was broken in two places. However, she considers herself fortunate to have escaped a life-changing injury or worse.
Met Commander Julian Bennett said: ‘This is a serious crime because of the risk to everyone involved.’
Referring to the ‘no helmet’ policy, Superintendent Mark Payne said: ‘If a rider takes his helmet off, that’s a result for us.
‘They will drive past five or six CCTV cameras and we will have his face.
‘We will bang on their door at 3am when it is low-risk.
‘Why should we bother chasing them through the streets of London?’
‘Alternative was losing my arm – or my life’
BUT BIKERS BEWARE ...SOME OF US ARE WILLING TO FIGHT BACK!