Thieves and Pick Pockets operating in Balham. Be Warned

Around 2:30pm today, (2/12) a man wearing a hoodie ran off with the tips jar from the coffee stall outside Bertie and Boo.  Today they tweeted their anger and added "for some reason we expect more of Balham!"

But don't expect more from Balham.  Also tweeting today, Petals of Balham, the new Hildreth Street flower shop tweeted a warning to mothers with children saying "A lot of bag snatches this week by white males in the balham area Targeting mothers with the children.  Use cash machines inside the banks!!"[sic]

On further investigation this was not heresay.  Yesterday, at a cash point outside Nationwide, a lady holding her baby had her card and money taken and as Chris Tucker from Petals of Balham was trying to ring the Police, another lady had had her bag snatched off her pram on Bedford Hill and he was being chased through Hildreth Street.

A good time, especially with frantic shopping around Christmas time -  and plenty of weekend Market activity ahead of us in Balham - to remember that Balham is not immune inspite of it's community atmosphere.  That's probably what attracts the thieves here in the first place.  Take care everyone.