Iconic “Absolutely Fabulous” actress Dame Joanna Lumley recently faced an unsettling encounter when motorbike bandits attempted to steal her vehicle amidst a series of break-ins in her area.
Renowned for her role as Patsy Stone in the beloved BBC comedy, the actress was abruptly woken up at her Stockwell, south London home last week.
At 79, Joanna stepped out of her £2.5 million townhouse to find a group of men revving motorbikes and attempting to break into her car.
The masked culprits surrounded her vehicle, with one even sitting in the driver’s seat, yet they failed to start the engine.
While the car alarm blared through the night, the would-be thieves persistently tried to make off with the vehicle.
Joining the fray, Joanna’s neighbor emerged, and together they shouted at the gang, prompting the criminals to flee the scene.
The car was left where it was but there was damage to the boot following the break-in. It is just the latest in a series of crimes in London blighting the area.
The actress declined to comment when approached by the Mail this morning.
A neighbour told the Daily Mail that the police had warned local residents on March 28 that there had been a series of car break-ins and to report any information to the Met.
Dame Joanna Lumley screamed at the group of thugs while dressed in only a dressing gown in the dead of night
One van in the neighbourhood had had its door broken and a small red car had the passenger window smashed in.
Another neighbour spoke about how a 90s Rolls Royce had been smashed into ‘a month or two ago’ as they ‘tried to find something on the back seat’ on Dame Lumley’s road.
One neighbour said there had been ‘quite a few’ car break-ins in recent months by people ‘driving on motorbikes’. He added it is ‘a bit’ scary to see them.
David James, who has lived on the square for the last 30 years, has said that car thefts used to be a much greater issue when he first moved to the area.
However, he said a neighbour had stopped him recently to say that car had been broken in to although he has never had issues with his own.
It comes as crime spirals out of control in the capital, with Scotland Yard deploying more police amid fears teen mobs will descend on town centres in a repeat of recent chaos in Clapham.
Hundreds of teenagers flooded into the plush south-west London neighbourhood as part of an Easter holiday ‘linkup’ promoted on social media.
More than 300 teenagers gathered on the Clapham Common baseball courts before swarming the High Street to steal from shops, attack police and fight amongst themselves – as terrified families barricaded themselves inside supermarkets.
The disgraceful scenes unfolded at the end of last month, with senior Conservatives demanding ‘mass arrests’.
Detective Chief Superintendent Emma Bond said parents ‘also have a role to play’ and asked them to ‘take responsibility’.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch described the scenes as a response to the ‘total collapse of consequences’.
‘Children smashing up shops in broad daylight, stealing and even filming themselves doing it as if it were a game, is a much bigger problem than is being recognised – this is a total collapse of consequences,’ she said.
Stars have frequently been the subject of crime in London, as disorder continues under Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan.
Broadcaster Selina Scott, 74, was viciously attacked and robbed by gang members in broad daylight in June last year.
Ms Scott, 74, a stalwart of British TV since the 1980s, was leaving a branch of Waterstones on Tuesday afternoon when she was struck on the back of her right knee, leaving her feeling as if she had been ‘stabbed’.
Thieves then seized upon her backpack, trying to rip it off the former ITN News At Ten anchor, but she bravely fought back and managed to keep it, despite them holding what appeared to be a weapon.
Sir Mick Jagger’s fiancée Melanie Hamrick was also ‘physically attacked’ outside the exclusive private members club Annabel’s in Mayfair in February this year.
She said two muggers grabbed her from behind – leaving her ‘shaken’ and ‘heartbroken’ in an Instagram post.
Dame Joanna Lumley, born in India in 1946, is due to turn 80 in a matter of weeks and previously said she was delighted to carry on her illustrious professional career.
Selina Scott (pictured), 74, was leaving a branch of Waterstones in London when she was viciously attacked and robbed by an organised gang in June last year
Mick Jagger’s fiancée Melanie Hamrick was left ‘shaken and heartbroken’ after being ‘physically attacked’ in Mayfair – they are pictured here at The Fashion Awards last December
Joanna travelled to Britain in 1954 aboard the HMT Empire Windrush with her family and later pursued a modelling career after being rejected by the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA).
She said that to keep up her energy she maintains ‘having no certainty’ in her life means that it ‘keeps you vibrant and engaged. If you’re always trying something new.’
The Dame told the Telegraph: ‘It’s extraordinary, isn’t it? I’ve been saying I’m 80 for the last two or three years because I thought I was, but I wasn’t.
‘People are making a big hoo-ha about this 80, as if I’m somehow going to be different, as if some huge precipice is reached. I’ll be working on my birthday.
‘I’m thrilled and I’m touched that people have remembered and think about it more than I do.’
Joanna has featured in The Wolf of Wall Street, James and the Giant Peach, Ella Enchanted, Coronation Street, and On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.
She continues to be active in her career, recently appearing on programmes including Car SOS, Wednesday, and a Sky travel series in which she explores Caribbean destinations, including Cuba and Haiti.
The attempted break-in of her car was first reported in The Times by columnist Emma Duncan, who said she had come out to help the Dame scare away the thieves.
The Met Police have been approached by the Mail for a comment.
