Police have been ridiculed after they reportedly told families terrorised by drug-crazed gangs to play classical music to drive the thugs away.
Locals living in the upmarket London neighbourhood of St John’s Wood, where the Beatles filmed their iconic album 1969 Abbey Road, complained car windows have been smashed by the gangs in recent months.
One shocking image obtained by The Sun shows the passenger-side window of a Porsche completely destroyed. Whereas in another a large rock can be seen sitting on the dashboard of a car.
A family living in the area also said they saw drug addicts shooting up crack cocaine on the door-step of their £3million home.
One resident, a businessman in his 50s, even claimed that a dealer threatened to shoot and chop him up after he confronted them on the street.
And then when he sent pictures of the alleged drug deal to police, he was told to play classical music as it prevents crime, The Sun has reported.
In an email sent by a Met Police officer, the man is reportedly advised to call 999 if he sees the suspects again.
But this is then followed up with the subsequent advice: ‘You can also contact your housing association/the council and ask them to play classical music as this has proven to deter and prevent crimes.’
Shockingly, he is also warned not to play the tunes too loudly as this can be the source of other complaints.
The man said: ‘Are the police on another planet?
‘It’s crazy that they thought this would solve the problem.’
According to the resident, around 20 cars have been broken in to in recent months with locals living in St John’s Wood left terrorised.
has contacted the Met Police for comment.
It comes after an armed thief was caught on camera rifling through the belongings of super-rich influencer Shafira Huang inside her 21-bed mansion in St John’s Wood.
Footage shows the gloved ‘lone wolf’ opening several jewellery boxes before rapidly shoving the priceless jewels into a black bag in the £10.4million raid.
The armed robber entered the property around 5pm on December 7, narrowly avoiding a run-in with a maid who was working in the socialites’ home at the time.
The man, who is described as white and in his 20s or 30s, is thought to have first attempted one window using a crowbar or screwdriver to open it.
After that window failed, he is believed to have lowered himself to the bathroom window using a large gutter to balance himself before breaking into the home.
Mrs Huang, an art collector and cultural ambassador at Bond Street’s Halcyon Gallery, was not at her sprawling 21-bed home when the raider struck.
The thief made off with bespoke jewellery including jewel-encrusted bracelets, necklaces and diamond rings, as well as £150,000 of designer handbags and cash.
Police said the crook was armed with an ‘unknown weapon’, which he appears to be wielding in an image earlier published by .
Csaba Virag, the chief of staff to the family who was in the property along with eight other members of staff at the time, told today he believes the robber acted like ‘Spider-Man’ to get into the property.
The spokesperson believes the conman, who is still on the run, used an abandoned ladder from a neighbouring property currently under construction to climb onto the roof before descending down to the second floor.
He said: ‘It had to have been pre-planned, definitely. Watching the footage, we can see the person was going to use it [the weapon] if he ended up in a confrontation with someone.
‘He was a lone wolf but also a spiderman, as it was quite a mission for him to climb up to the roof and descend from there to the second floor before breaking into the entrance. There are footprints on the roof that I have seen.
‘A lot of the neighbourhood is under construction and some of the properties are for sale. There is a large construction site on the garden side of the home and thief highly likely came through that property.’