Thanks Dazzler
You've proved my point - there isn't any evidence that this has happened at all.
Your search link gave me four news outlets reporting the "story"
Two of these are celerbrity gossip sites. One is something called "entertainmentdaily", one of them is "OK!" magazine.
It appears that "OK!" magazine may be the source of these unfounded rumours as its article reveals:
"The NHS worker, who wished to remain anonymous, opened up to OK! Online after sharing a heartbreaking Instagram post..."
"In the message, the unnamed nurse is warned to "be careful coming in and leaving work," after various staff members at the same hospital were mugged for their NHS ID badges."
So what we have here is an anonymous person getting in touch with OK! celebrity gossip magazine. We have no way of verifying the authenticity of this.
The OK! article also shares a screenshot of a Whatsapp message which states that "...4 members of staff have been mugged in the past couple of days, in daylight as well, because fewer people are around the muggers are just going for it!"
If we take this at face value, even the source is anonymous, we don't know how big the hospital is so we don't know if it's extremely unusual for 4 people to get mugged.
It is important to note that the screenshot from the Whatsapp group doesn't mention anything about people being mugged
because they were identifiably NHS staff. It just says they were mugged. No mention of ID card, lanyards or anything.
The story from "entertainmentdaily" is exactly the same - there is no source for the story, there is no primary source for the accusation of people being mugged "for their ID card" (none whatsoever). It's simply an article listing tweets by people passing on the same, unfounded, rumour.
The other two outlets who carry the story are using the exact same story - it is word for word. They are the "Express" (a down-market, ridiculous UK tabloid not much better than a celebrity magazine) and something I've never heard of called "news24x7world.com"
However, their article does contain a useful piece of information. It quotes a tweet from the official Metropolitan Police who tweeted:
“We are aware of claims of NHS staff being deliberately targeted by criminals in London.
The MPS is not aware of any recent reports of this nature."
I've highlighted the important words here for you.
So what's happened here?
We've got unverified, unverifiable reports from anonymous sources. We've got headlines which
suggest NHS staff are being mugged for their ID cards etc but we've got stories which don't actually say that.
And we've got an official response from the Metropolitan Police saying they have are not aware of any such crimes having ever taken place.
Let's be frank and keep this simple - I think this story is utter bull sh:t.
I think people should think twice before passing on rubbish like this.
All it is doing is unnecessarily scaring people who are going round doing a very important and highly valuable job for society.
Let's all try and do something productive during our confinement, eh?
