Robbery attempt at ATM

Last week, four youngsters tried to harrass our daughter, Joanna, in Newcastle. She turned on them and pinned them down so that they then fled, scared out of their wits.

I rang Samu yesterday. He told me that someone had attempted to rob Joanna at an ATM. I got to Joanna and she told me that right in the centre of Newcastle, a guy snatched the money as she was getting it from an ATM.

Joanna is extremely fast and has learnt all there is to know about self defence, including karate! She managed to grab this guy's marauding hand and swing him around so she had him firmly locked in her grip.

Not a single person came forward to help her!

She cried for assistance and finally someone came forward and took the money the guy was clutching in his hands. The grabber tried to say the money was his and he was going to call the Police - to which Joanna quickly told him to!

Once she got her money back she let the guy go and he scooted off.

The Police Station was just a couple of doors away. She reported it to the Police. Today she will try to do an ID of the guy at the Police Station. She is sure it has been caught on the CCTV.

Joanna, and her friend, Rita, were active karate enthusiasts when she was in school in Oulu. I remember her coming home with blue marks all over as she learnt it the hard way! (Her karate teacher later became our neighbour when we lived at Kampitie - an orthopaedics doctor!)

If I remember correctly, I did get her the karate clothing on one of my visits to England. (My memory is not so good, but I seem to remember going with our son, Jaakko, to buy the stuff in Birmingham.)

Well that has paid off. Joanna intends to get her son, Samu, to join a course in self defence as soon as possible. Very important. We learnt boxing at school, but in my opinion, that is not enough.

In Finland, at ATMs, they have an red line about a metre and a half away. No one is permitted to stand nearer than that when someone is using the ATM. I have seen people telling people off if they come closer than that.

In my opinion, there should be a mirror on the ATM so one can see if someone is approaching the ATM from behind the user, as when one is busy on the machine, one will tend to forget what is going on behind. Any movement in a mirror will alert the individual.

Like father, like daughter.

I remember how I caught a cat burglar in our 2nd floor apartment in Mumbai in 1960, the year I left school. I was fit as a fiddle and brought him down with a scissor grip feet first dive from my bed while he was diving out of the bedroom window! He was greased and almost slid through my scissor grip, but I grabbed him around the neck. As I was six foot+ and this guy was no more than 5 foot, when I stood up, his feet were dangling off the ground! But he was a wily tough character.

I think I may have recounted this story earlier on the blog, maybe a long long time ago! Will check and if not will tell you the humourous side of it after the event occurred!

Anyway we are grateful that Joanna is safe and did not lose her money!