“Unexpected, terrifying and overwhelming!” were the three words a girl exclaimed after the mayhem occurred.

On the 13th October 2019 at roughly 1 o'clock a group of boys who were thought to be around 14 and 15 ran into the Glades shopping centre in Bromley with a propelling speed which seemed very suspicious. They pushed and shoved customers who stood in there way and headed straight to the Apple store.

In a matter of second, they flooded the store. They pounced on the clients who were examining the new iPhone 11 devices and pushed them harshly, knocking the iPhones from their hands and proceeded to Yank the phones from the safety wires, setting the blaring alarms off. They hurried out of the shop but were slowed down by the commotion of the eyewitness outside.

One girl, in particular, could not bare standing there and observing so she hit one of the boys with her bag causing him to propel forwards and drop the devices he stole, which were then given back to the Apple employees by this bold, anonymous girl. Other people also tried stopping some of the boys forcibly, they pushed them to the ground, tripped them over and took as many devices back as possible. One managed to capture one of the burglars successfully. This all happened in a matter of minutes. As soon as it happened it disappeared.

One eyewitness spoke to me afterwards and said in distress, “It was so scary, they just snatched the phone off my hand and shoved me out of the way!”

I for one was there with my companions outside the Apple store. I was in shock after the event due to the fact I was right outside the shop and I could of been robbed if I had not hidden my phone when seeing them enter. I couldn't stop panicking, my heart was beating a million miles per minute. It was the uncertainty behind how safe you were in that crisis that caused many customers such as my self to go into panic mode and some left with tears running down their faces.

One here must think: 'why did the shop's keepers of Apple not interfere and stop the robbers?' Well, this is because under a strict rule place by the police department shop keepers are prohibited from stopping a person after they exit the shop and have to refrain from chasing after them. They are expected to only call security on the thief's. The regulation was informed to me by the Body shop worker who was present in the catastrophe. Accordingly to my anonymous source, these sort of thefts occur monthly and sometimes weekly.

I think that if these do occur as much as my source determined police and Glades officials should increase their security or else fewer people would be willing to visit as it would not be viewed as a safe place to go to.

By Reem Ababtain