A London boater has described the moment she woke up to a man in a balaclava at the foot of her bed, and claims the Metropolitan Police allegedly questioned if the incident was a ‘mistake’ when attending the scene.
Olivia, in her 30s, was left in shock after a masked man broke into her houseboat in the early hours on the Regent’s Canal in Haggerston last month, making it to the foot of her bed before she woke and forced him out.
The boater alleged the Met officers who attended the boat were polite but unhelpful, in an incident which exposes the vulnerability of London’s boat-dwellers and raises questions about the recognition of boats as homes in the city.
Olivia said: “I’m just a sitting duck here, that’s what it feels like.
“Two break-ins in two and half years, how can you protect yourself and defend yourself?
“I woke up about 2am with a figure in my bedroom, above my bed facing towards my wardrobe.”
Olivia claimed the intruder had boarded her narrowboat, broken in, and made his way through the entire length of the boat to reach the bedroom at the back.
She said: “I normally wake up as soon as I feel movement.
“That’s what scared me the most. It makes me think he must have been someone who knows what he’s doing.”
“At first I was confused and I thought it was my partner, and then I was suddenly just like, ‘That’s not my partner’, and I realised he had this mask on.”
In the back of the boat, Olivia had nowhere to go, with the only door being at the front.
She said: “I thought, ‘If I scream he’ll try to shut me up’.
“I just went into fight mode, I kept saying ‘What the f**k?’ and walked after him as he walked out.
“It all happened in slow motion.”
Olivia called the police after spending some time in shock and wondering if what she’d just experienced was real.
She explained she was reluctant to call the police because she felt they weren’t helpful when she called them to a previous break-in on her boat two-and-half-years ago in Enfield.
Upon arrival, Olivia claimed that two female officers boarded the boat and stayed stood at the front for about 10-15 minutes while two male officers searched the towpath for a suspect.
She further claimed two officers on the boat did not search for evidence beyond where they were stood, and said one asked: “Are you sure he didn’t just get the wrong boat?”
She claimed that the officers left the boat soon after, determining there would not be any evidence.
Olivia said: “You’d think they’d at least look in the bedroom.
“They were really useless.”
The Metropolitan Police were approached for comment.
The police did not clarify if an investigation into the break-in is ongoing, but the boater alleged officers closed the case at the scene.
There are over 4,000 boats on London’s canal network, with numbers rising substantially in the past ten years – in part spurred by the city’s rental crisis.
Boat ownership can be an attractive and more immediate means to gain residential independence and home ownership in the context of increasingly unaffordable housing and rental traps.
But for many boaters, including Olivia, this independence is compromised by a sense of increased exposure and defencelessness.
Olivia said: “Boats seem to be an easy target.
“I’m just a sitting duck here, that’s what it feels like.”
Olivia described how she was approached by a man on the towpath a few days before the break-in, who asked her if the boat was hers and if she lived on it alone, which is seemingly an all-too-common encounter for young women living on the canals.
An analysis of publicly available Met police data does not show an obvious distinction between break-ins on boats and other residential properties.
Incidents of burglary, for example, are classified as either residential, business and community, or in a dwelling.
Without this data, it’s difficult to understand how crime targeting boats in London is monitored, or even clearly understood.
The Met Police were also contacted for comment on this subject.
A Canal and River Trust spokesperson said: “It is a sad fact of life that some criminals will target boaters on our 100km of waterways in London and we are sorry to hear about this incident.
“When arriving in any new location we advise boaters to look at their surroundings in daylight to assess whether it is a safe place to moor, and to check the nearest street and postcode in case of an emergency.”
Boaters rely on a network of communication groups and conversation to spread awareness about incidents and areas to avoid.
Olivia felt the response of the police to the incident she reported could suggest a deeper institutional ambivalence to crimes on the canals, as if by living on the canals, boaters are inviting break-ins.
Olivia said: “It was a sort of ‘Well, what were you wearing?’ response.”
Olivia questioned how the response may have differed if she had been in a house.
In addition, many points on London’s canals are inaccessible directly by road, tricky to navigate and without clear landmarks, making directing emergency services particularly difficult.
Olivia said: “The police couldn’t find me for ages.
“I could see them running the wrong way but I didn’t want to leave the boat to get their attention.”
National Bargee and Travellers Association London branch secretary Hazel Tocock said: “With the Canal and River Trust attempting to push boaters off large sections of London’s canals with new measures like ‘no mooring zones’, ‘chargeable moorings’ and increasingly draconian enforcement, many boaters feel that their homes are becoming more vulnerable to break-ins than ever as once-populated areas begin to empty out.
“Boaters would like to see crime on the canals taken seriously, not just by the police – who should be collecting boat specific data and recognising the unique vulnerabilities of many on the water – but by the Canal and River Trust as well, who need to recognise that a strong boater presence makes the waterways safer for everyone.”
Olivia said she is more vigilant than before the break-in, but despite the shock, she is undeterred.
She said: “I love boating so much.
“I’m not going to let some cowardly man who was scared of me in my pink pyjamas make me scared of living on a boat.”
Olivia’s real name was not used in this article in order to protect her identity.
Feature image: Adam Termote
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