This week 30 years ago: Woman, 75, chases off two teens who tried to steal her bag outside Archway station
Islington Gazette: January 29, 1988 - Credit: Archant
Two teenage cowards were chased by the same umbrella-wielding pensioner whose bag they had tried to steal.
At first, 75-year-old Adelaide Watson ticked them off, threatening to call the police. But when they returned with a hammer, she whacked them with an umbrella and chased them from Archway station.
Adelaide, from Upper Holloway, said it wasn’t a fair fight: “They weren’t tough-looking, as some boys of 16 are.
“I’m very active. I do exercises every morning and I can run too.
“The best defence is attack.”
You may also want to watch:
Meanwhile, seven cars were crushed under an avalanche of poles and planks when scaffolding collapsed in Upper Holloway.
No one was injured, but the damage cost thousands of pounds. Painters had been decorating the Mulberry Tree pub in Holloway Road when the whole structure crumbled.
Most Read
- 1 Archway murder investigation launched as 15-year-old victim named
- 2 Archway stabbing: 16-year-old arrested on suspicion of murder
- 3 Islington man sentenced after spate of motorbike and bike thefts
- 4 Teenager dies after stabbing in Archway
- 5 Pictures: Scenes in Islington and Hackney after snowfall blankets London
- 6 Barnsbury homes evacuated after burst Thames Water pipe floods basements
- 7 Archway man jailed after causing 'totally avoidable' crash
- 8 Tributes paid to Islington student fatally stabbed in Tottenham
- 9 Angel Comedy Club launches mockumentary series to save venue
- 10 Two 16-year-olds charged with murder of Islington student
Pub landlady Kathleen Flattery said: “No one was on or under it at the time, thank God.”