Ram-raiders Attack Brentford Convenience Store

Latest in a spate of moped-enabled attacks in the area

The latest in a spate of moped-enabled thefts and robberies has occurred on London Road in Brentford after three men ram-raided a convenience store.

The police were called at 3.55am on Bank Holiday Monday (28 August) to reports of a group of men breaking into the shop.

The three suspects, all wearing helmets, were on two black/dark coloured mopeds, one of which was used to ram the front door to gain entry. The suspects stole a quantity of cash and a cigarettes/tobacco and are understood to have fled the scene on London Road towards Kew Bridge before police arrived.

Shortly afterwards the post office on Strand on the Green in Chiswick was broken into by a gang of three people.

The postmistress Mrs Joshi was asleep upstairs when she was awoken by a loud bang and then the alarm going off. She saw three people with crash helmets riding two motorbikes.

Thankfully after a couple of minutes they all rode off towards the Grove Park area. Mrs Joshi’s son Milan believes that this was because there is nothing of notable value in the shop (i.e. no cash till, cigarettes, alcohol, perfumes or expensive stock) and the shop alarm is deafening when triggered.

The trio could not get through the glass on the door as it did not shatter. In any event, there are steel bars behind the glass even if they had managed to break the glass. However, after a lot of effort they did break the lock on the door and once in the shop they went for the cigarette shutter but the contents were empty as they have been for many years.

The police arrived very quickly once the alarm went off and a forensics team appeared soon afterwards.

Milan said, “We've had the shop door secured with new locks. My mum is ok but, understandably, was shaken up and needed some strong cups of tea to settle her nerves.”

This is not the first time that the post office has been hit. Mrs Joshi has already had to overcome the trauma of having two armed robberies in 2007, including watching a thief putting a gun to her customer’s head.

Any witnesses, or anyone with any information, can contact police via 101, or via Twitter @MetCC.

To give information anonymously call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or visit crimestoppers-uk.org.

September 1, 2017