Each week, Ben Hopkinson looks back at a serious, crazy, and happy news story from the past week.
Serious News
The The Met Police have seized 2,500 e-bikes and e-scooters throughout the calendar year to try and stop robberies and snatching mobile phones from Londoners.
Throughout 2024, more than 80,500 phones were reported as stolen – an increase of more than 15,000 from the year before.
The force’s statistics have described a down turn in offences between 1st April and 22nd October – theft from a person is down by 16.6%, while personal robbery decreased by 13.5%.
Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley says that it is a “priority” to tackle phone thefts and a lot of progress has been made, adding: “We're going after the thieves, we've bought specialist bikes that officers do pursuits on, we're going after the handlers and we're going after organised crime”.
Crazy News
In Virginia, a racoon broke into a store and smashed a few bottles of spirits and drunk a bit too much!
When the police investigated the break in, they were expecting to either find a person, or indeed some evidence – but ended up finding the animal passed out sleeping off the alcohol in the toilet.
Rather than being arrested, Hanover County Animal Protection and Shelter took in the animal, and later released it back in the wild, as a spokesperson says: “After a few hours of sleep and zero signs of injury (other than maybe a hangover and poor life choices), he was safely released back to the wild, hopefully having learned that breaking and entering is not the answer”.
Just to make things worse for the owner, the animal entered in through the ceiling – also taking out the CCTV camera.
Happy News
It has been announced that the first carol service in aid of the London Ambulance Service will take place at 6:30pm on Tuesday at Fleet Street’s St Bride’s Church.
Kez Ogbulafor, one of the cast on BBC One documentary series Ambulance, will give one of the readings, as will the mother of a teenage cardiac arrest survivor throughout Together in Song.
Donna Rosenwould watched her 17-year-old son collapse at their family home and says: “e would not be here today with such a bright future if it wasn’t for the paramedics at London Ambulance Service. They saved his life. I keep replaying it in my head but thank God the ambulance crews were there”.
The carol will raise funds for the Heart Starters Campaign – the goal to put more defibrillators in communities across London.
Statistics show that fewer than one in 10 people survive a cardiac arrest.
Tickets are on sale now but are limited in availability and priced at £5 for children, £10 for adults, or £25 for a family of two adults and two children.
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