{"id":515849,"date":"2026-04-06T13:05:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T13:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/515849\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T13:05:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T13:05:10","slug":"dame-joanna-lumleys-car-targeted-by-thieves-on-motorbikes-in-london-amid-police-warnings-of-rising-threats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/515849\/","title":{"rendered":"Dame Joanna Lumley’s car targeted by thieves on motorbikes in London amid police warnings of rising threats"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dame Joanna Lumley found herself face-to-face with a gang of masked criminals attempting to steal her vehicle outside her south London residence last week.<\/p>\n

The 79-year-old Absolutely Fabulous star emerged from her \u00a32.5million Stockwell townhouse after being woken by the commotion in the middle of the night.<\/p>\n

A group of men on motorbikes had surrounded her car while its alarm blared.<\/p>\n

According to one of Dame Joanna’s neighbours, one thief was seated behind the wheel but was unable to get the engine running.<\/p>\n

\"Joanna<\/p>\n

Dame Joanna Lumley’s car was targeted last week<\/p>\n

| PA<\/p>\n

The actress, renowned for her portrayal of Patsy Stone in the BBC comedy, is said to have begun shouting at the intruders alongside the neighbour who had also rushed outside.<\/p>\n

Soon after, the gang scattered from the scene, leaving empty-handed.<\/p>\n

That neighbour was Times columnist Emma Duncan, who had rushed out barefoot wearing only an overcoat after hearing the disturbance.<\/p>\n

She described the scene as resembling “a classic dream sequence” as she mocked the circumstances surrounding the incident.<\/p>\n

\"Joanne<\/p>\n

Joanna Lumley is said to have yelled at the thieves <\/p>\n

| <\/p>\n

PA<\/p>\n

Ms Duncan recounted how she spotted the commotion from her window and sprinted along the pavement towards the noise.<\/p>\n

Upon reaching the vehicle, she said she heard one of the thieves in the driver’s seat shouting that he couldn’t start it.<\/p>\n

“For want of anything better to do, I yelled at them to f*** off,” Ms Duncan wrote, adding that Ms Lumley had joined her and “was doing much the same”.<\/p>\n

The vehicle was left at the scene with damage to its boot following the attempted theft.<\/p>\n

\"Joanna<\/p>\n

Joanna Lumley has been a star of the screen for decades<\/p>\n

| PA<\/p>\n

The incident forms part of a wider pattern of criminality affecting the neighbourhood.<\/p>\n

Metropolitan Police had alerted local residents on March 28 about a spate of car break-ins in the area, urging them to report any relevant information.<\/p>\n

Other vehicles on the street have also been targeted recently.<\/p>\n

One resident reported that a 1990s Rolls-Royce had been broken into “a month or two ago” as thieves apparently searched for items on the back seat.<\/p>\n

\"Dame<\/p>\n

Dame Joanna Lumley walked away from the incident unscathed <\/p>\n

| <\/p>\n

PA<\/p>\n

A van in the neighbourhood had its door damaged, whilst a small red car had its passenger window smashed in.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Dame Joanna, who was born in Srinagar in British India and arrived in Britain aboard the HMT Empire Windrush in 1954, will celebrate her 80th birthday on May 1.<\/p>\n

The two-time Bafta winner has shown no signs of slowing down professionally, recently taking on the role of Grandmama in the American series Wednesday and presenting a Sky travel programme exploring Caribbean destinations, including Cuba and Haiti.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the Telegraph ahead of her milestone birthday, she dismissed any suggestion that turning 80 would change anything: “I’ll be working on my birthday.”<\/p>\n

The actress declined to comment when contacted by press.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dame Joanna Lumley found herself face-to-face with a gang of masked criminals attempting to steal her vehicle outside…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":515850,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[35884,6491,830,96,388,50,2331,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-515849","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-across-the-uk","9":"tag-celebrities","10":"tag-celebrity","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-london","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-sgg","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=515849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515849\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/515850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=515849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=515849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=515849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}