Commuters using Ravenscourt Park station are being warned to stay alert after police said a suspected pickpocket gang is believed to have been targeting people there about three times a week.
The Metropolitan Police believes the same group may be behind a series of thefts outside the west London station, and says the pattern stretches back through the summer.
Police Constable Joanne Day said the offending has been going on all summer, about three times a week between 9am and 11am. The gang is also said to have targeted commuters at Turnham Green and Chiswick Park.
The most recent incidents underline why police are speaking out now. Yesterday, 3 November, a phone worth £1,000 was stolen near the station and the suspects were chased, but they escaped. Police believe the same gang may have struck again earlier this morning.
Officers suspect the group is made up of four people — two men and two women. According to police, the gang moves in and out of the station barriers, follows people, and pickpockets them on the stairs, while another person acts as a lookout outside the station.
Police have issued descriptions of the suspects. One man is described as aged 28 to 30, around 173cm tall, of skinny build, with light brown shaved hair and a slight beard, wearing a black tracksuit with a white rucksack and with tattoos visible in the summer. The second man is described as aged 28 to 31, around 170cm tall, of medium build, also with light brown shaved hair and a slight beard. The two women are described as both Romanian, one of skinny build and one of medium build.
These are police descriptions of suspects in an ongoing investigation — no one has been charged in connection with the thefts, and the gang itself is alleged, not proven. Anyone who recognises the descriptions or was targeted should contact the Metropolitan Police.
The warning matters because of the method as much as the frequency. A station staircase at morning rush hour is crowded, hurried and easy to work in: a barrier passed through, a target followed, a pocket picked on the stairs, and a lookout outside to warn of trouble. Commuters are advised to keep phones and wallets in closed inner pockets, to be wary of anyone crowding close on stairs or at barriers, and to report anything suspicious to station staff or police straight away.
Ravenscourt Park sits on the District line in Hammersmith, between Stamford Brook and Hammersmith stations, and serves a busy morning flow towards central London. Turnham Green and Chiswick Park, the other stations named by police, are on the same western stretch of the line — which may explain how one group can work several stops in a single morning window.
For now, the investigation continues, and police are asking anyone with information — particularly anyone who was at Ravenscourt Park, Turnham Green or Chiswick Park between 9am and 11am and noticed a group matching the descriptions — to come forward.
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