Wimbledon Prowler: Police continue hunt for burglar who has netted around £1m a year from 200 break-ins
The man dressed in black and wearing a trademark fisherman’s hat is at the centre of a renewed police effort
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Over a decade of industrious activity, the burglar known as the Wimbledon Prowler has netted about £1m a year from 200 break-ins. He shows little sign of letting up on his prodigious work rate.
After a lull in his activities following a 2014 Crimewatch appeal that showed footage of the man inside one of his victim’s kitchens, the burglar is believed to have been behind another three raids in the past fortnight, police said. A number of CCTV systems have also been tampered with.
The man dressed in black and wearing a trademark fisherman’s hat is at the centre of a renewed police effort as residents spoke of their fears of repeated break-ins in and around Wimbledon Village and close to the All England tennis club. Former men’s champion Boris Becker was one of his victims.
The man has never been identified despite being caught on a number of occasions on security cameras. He has been disturbed at least six times by householders and has fled without being caught.
He even managed to escape after being chased across a garden by one of his most fleet-footed victims, the French footballer Nicolas Anelka, according to reports.
On 15 March, police released footage of the burglar tossing a safe out of the window of a home in Wimbledon last year. The burglar then emerges to calmly collect the heavy safe and walk off with it.
Detectives said that his skill lies in silencing alarm equipment and carefully selecting items to steal so that householders often do not know that they have been the victims of crime. He has returned to plunder the same homes on several occasions, increasing the scale of his looting every time. As part of the latest effort, 30 police officers reportedly lay in wait at some likely haunts, hiding in trees and sheds, in an unsuccessful operation to catch him. No officer has yet seen him in the flesh.
While he appears to be an expert in picking locks, on occasions his work has been helped by householders leaving doors and windows unlocked.
“He didn’t take too much, that seems to be his modus operandi,” one victim told London’s Evening Standard. “He came into our house when we were asleep, he was so quiet even the dog didn’t wake up.
“You don’t care about what someone has stolen – it’s about privacy and security being violated. I’ve had so many sleepless nights worrying about whether he’d come back as some people had been targeted twice.”
Detective Inspector Dan O’Sullivan, of Scotland Yard, said: “Someone must recognise this man and his distinctive clothing. He clearly spends a significant amount of time away from home in the early hours, something which cannot go unnoticed by family and friends. Do you know anyone who fits this profile?