Absolutely Fabulous star Dame Joanna Lumley was targeted by motorbike bandits who tried to steal her car as a spate of break-ins gripped her neighbourhood.
The actress and model – best known for her role as Patsy Stone in the BBC comedy – was rudely awakened in her home in Stockwell, south London, last week.
Joanna, 79, came out of her £2.5million townhouse to see a group of men revving motorbikes while trying to break into her car.
The gang of masked thieves surrounded her motor, one of them sitting in the driver’s seat – but was unable to start it.
The car’s alarm was wailing into the night while the thieves repeatedly tried to steal it.
Joanna’s next-door neighbour also came out and the pair are said to have shouted out to the gang who scrambled from 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.
Police confirmed there had been three reports of attempted break-ins to vehicles in the area between Thursday, March 26 and Saturday, March 28. Cops are investigating and spoke with local residents to gather intelligence.
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.
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.
Another resident said that there was a car crash nearby and ‘There were a lot of police and dogs all over the place after that’. they added that the near by Co-op ‘has seen a lot of shoplifting recently.’
Locals have teamed up in the face of a rise in crime in the area, they added, meeting with police and rejoining the Safer Neighbourhoods Panel.
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.
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.
A Met Police spokesperson said: ‘Tackling car theft and other neighbourhood crime remains a priority for the Met.
‘We have strengthened neighbourhood policing, with more officers focused on identifying and targeting the most prolific offenders who cause the greatest harm to communities.
‘Across London, vehicle crime, including theft and damage to vehicles, is down by almost 15 per cent compared with this time last year.’
