‘Batman’ vigilante fights crime in South London
A masked vigilante clad in black has saved two people from muggers on the streets of South London, earning him the nickname “the Bromley Batman”.
Three people have so far reported seeing the masked crime fighter, who has rescued two people from attacks, some including knives.
The man, who has so far not been identified, uses fly-kicking martial arts to clear away attackers, according to the London Evening Standard.
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The growling mugger learned there are consequences to his crime. Photo: Shutterstock
A woman leaving public transport in Lewisham, Southeast London said a six-foot, growling man with a shaved head snatched her bag about four months ago.
“As he pulled my bag away from me it was a horrible emotion of feeling sick to the stomach,” she told the newspaper.
“The force behind it was actually painful.”
But the woman said a tall man in his early 30s with a well-groomed beard and deep voice tripped the fleeing mugger and snatched the bag back, which was returned to its owner.
“He gave me back my bag, and told me something along the lines of: ‘Make sure this doesn’t happen again’,” she told the Evening Standard.
“If I could give him a kiss to say thanks, I would be a happy girl.”
He ‘pushed them both into a prickly hedge’
The hedge dished out its own justice. Photo: Shutterstock
In nearby Martin’s Hill, an attack at knifepoint which left the victim, Ken, fearing for his life and the welfare of his family came to a swift end when a masked man in a black muscle top and combat pants emerged “out of nowhere”.
“I thought I was quite literally done for,” Ken, who did not want his surname made public, said.
“He kicked the biggest of my attackers to the ground, which must have knocked the wind out of him. Then he grabbed one of the others and swung him into the other one, and pushed them both into a prickly hedge. They were both screaming in pain.
“It actually scared the life out of me – as I’m sure it did the young chaps who attempted to mug me.”
The attackers were trying to get Ken’s phone and wallet after they saw him walking past and began swearing and calling him names. “One said: ‘We should take his s*** from him’.”
“I only had one thought, and that was my family,” he told the Standard. “I thought: ‘What if I don’t make it home?'”
But as fast as the attempted mugging occurred, the masked crusader left before Ken could thank him. Now Ken wants to find the man who defended him from the gang of thugs.
‘The geezer getting beaten up ran like a nutter’
No sign of a cape, but the Batman of Bromley cuts a mean figure. Photo: Shutterstock
In a third event in the London suburb of Penge, a man recalled how a masked, bearded man with presumed martial arts training used a “ninja lock” to break up a gang-bashing.
“A couple of drunk geezers were punching and kicking some other geezer. From what I overheard, it was about cash being owed,” a witness told the Standard.
“A tall geezer came running in wearing all black, with his face covered up as well.
“He grabbed one of them, attacking him, and put some kind of ninja lock on him. He pushed him while twisting this geezer’s arm into the other fella.
“The geezer getting beaten up ran like a nutter, and with both the fellas on the floor the masked geezer scarpered quickly away himself.”
The vigilante is reminiscent of comic book superheros but more like Batman than any others.
Batman patrolled the fictional Gotham City dealing out instant justice and saving innocent people from danger.