A brave carer is desperate for help catching a mugger who yanked her gold chain that belonged to her late mum off her neck as she travelled to work.
Rosie Shardlow, 61, said she has never taken the precious keepsake off since the day her mum died five years ago.
But she has been left desperate for police to catch a mugger who snatched the chain and her her handbag as she waited for a bus in north London on her way to work yesterday.
The key worker had toiled through the Easter bank holiday weekend caring for elderly and disabled people, including dementia and stroke patients, amid the nationwide coronavirus lockdown.
Rosie is desperate to get the sentimental jewellery back after she was robbed by a young thug early yesterday morning as she waited for a bus in South Tottenham.
She was forced to take the day off her job on Easter Sunday after the ordeal.
She told how she was waiting at a bus stop on Amhurst Road at about 7am yesterday when a stranger she described as a young black man approached her.
Rosie said he asked if he had been waiting long for a bus, then asked her if she was a carer after seeing her ID badge.
She said she replied, telling him she was a carer and briefly looked away from him to see whether the bus was approaching.
Suddenly he pounced and thrust his face into hers.
Rosie recalled: “As I turned back around he’d put his hands to my throat and his face right next to me.
“He said to me: ‘don’t scream, don’t scream.’ And you can ask my kids - I never swear - and I said ‘what the f*** are you doing.’”
The man grabbed the chain, along with her bag which contained both her work and personal phones, and £200 in cash, she said.
“It was the way he yanked it, just pulling. He gave it a couple of yanks, and he was gone.
"I chased after him - I shouldn’t have done it but I did - he actually had someone in a car with the engine running right there, then they drove off.”
Rosie said she was not concerned about exposure to coronavirus because she was wearing a face-mask when the mugger struck.
The brave Londoner managed to take down a description of the small silver car and its licence plate before she rushed home to phone the police.
She said officers visited her home and told her that thanks to her description they hoped they would be able to trace the vehicle on CCTV.
Rosie, whose dad Douglas was tragically killed in a hit-and-run in 2005, is desperate to get the chain back which belonged to her mother, Trudy, who she lost five years ago.
"Once I put it on I've never taken it off."
She said the mugger's actions made her "sick."
"It's just annoying going out to work to care for people and that happens to you."
Rosie was back at work on Easter Monday today despite being shaken by her ordeal.
She added: “I just said, well, I’ve got to get back on the horse otherwise I’m just going to get frightened. I just said that’s it, I’m not going to sit around - I’m going to be out there and back to work.”
Rosie said she would stop working early Sunday mornings, as she fears London’s criminals are targeting shift workers amid the lockdown.
“I guess it was an opportunity for them because the roads are quiet and there aren’t as many people around. It’s an opportunity if they find someone on their own.”
A Met Police spokesman said: "Detectives from the Central East Command Unit are investigating the robbery of a woman in her 60s.
"The offence, which police were called about at 07.14hrs on Sunday, 12 April took place opposite Stamford Hill bus station, Amhurst Park.
"The victim was waiting for a bus when she was approached by the suspect, described as a black male aged between 17 and 20, clean shaven and possibly around 5ft6ins in height. He was wearing grey jogging bottoms and a long off-white t shirt which hung underneath an unzipped hoodie.
"He began a conversation and after around a minute, the male suddenly ripped a gold chain from the woman’s neck and stole a number of other items including £200 and her freedom pass.
"The victim chased the suspect onto Holmdale Terrace, N15, before he go into a small silver car which was then driven away by what is believed to be a second suspect. There is no description of the driver."
Anyone with information is asked to contact police on 101 or via @MetCC quoting CAD2171/12APRIL or you can call Crimestoppers 100 per cent anonymously on 0800 555 111.
