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Residents of one of London's wealthiest areas have been warned about their security by a woman mugged and slashed outside her £4million home.
The 52-year-old was attacked by two masked men as she parked her car in the drive of the terrace house.
She has told neighbours and police how she was slashed on the cheek by one of the men as he demanded her jewellery.
In a letter circulated to neighbours, the married woman told them she feared she would be stabbed to death.
Police are investigating the robbery. The letter tells residents in Ladbroke Grove how the married woman was robbed on Sunday afternoon as she parked her car.
"As I took the key out of the ignition, the door was flung open and a white male in his late twenties or thirties, together with an accomplice, brandished a knife in my face," she wrote.
The man, wearing a hooded top and with a white dust mask covering his face, grabbed her and brandished the knife, saying "don't scream", the woman wrote.
He repeatedly said "jewellery".
"I was wearing no rings, no necklace, no bracelet, just someone out on a few errands for her family," she said.
The man then used the knife to cut her face, drawing blood.
Within seconds the man grabbed her handbag and watch.
He made off with his accomplice in a parked black 4x4 car.
"The frightening reality is that, had I even attempted to resist, I could have been another serious crime statistic," she wrote.
She praised police, saying that the officers she spoke to were also concerned at "a new and dangerous development in crime in this area".
She urged neighbours to be "vigilant".
A Scotland Yard spokesman confirmed that police were investigating an allegation of robbery in Notting Hill at 5pm on 24 May in which a woman said she had been attacked by two men and robbed of a purse and a watch.
The attack is being dealt with by officers from Notting Hill police robbery squad.
Reader views (5)
Some of us live in areas where these events occur every day but THEY don't seem to make it to the news. A person was murdered over the road from where I live last Thursday and it hasn't even been reported anywhere. BRITISH POLICE: PROTECT THE RICH AND THEIR POSSESSIONS AT ALL COSTS!
- Real, London, 01/06/2009 09:51
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If the likes of Eddie is right then we should all be allowed to arm ourselves , like citizens are in France [CS sprays];or better still the US , guns.Thats the logic of it now.Society should have a right to protect itself , the laws of England belong to a bygone age , a different society.Then perpetrators of these crimes would then learn British people are not the easy passive victims they now present.
- Chris M, morbihan,france, 30/05/2009 23:41
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The council should put cameras up to record cars etc.,The Police should also make more patrols.
- Stan White, leeds, 30/05/2009 06:56
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This woman had better be careful, the criminals have a right to do their thing in peace without resistance - as we have seen in other cases where citizens have attempted to "fight back"
Simply warning her neighbors that criminals are in the area could be enough for a civil rights action against her (recall that citizens were told they could not inform neighbors of sex offenders now living in the area)
- Trunk, US, 29/05/2009 15:26
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If you choose to 'live' in London you have to take your chances.The Ciy's changed for the worse and we should expect a bit of agg somewhere along the line.I do.
- Eddie, London, 29/05/2009 13:56
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