British Transport Police officers are releasing images of a man following a series of thefts of defibrillators across London stations.
The incidents have occurred at:
Loughton rail station on 2 April at 3pm
Woodford rail station on 5 April at 12.55am
Stratford rail station on 2 April at 10.15pm
Bow Road rail station on 2 April at 1pm
Leytonstone rail station on 5 April at 5.40am
The man, on every occasion, approached the defibrillator cabinet at the station, opened it up and took the defibrillator out. He then either placed it into a bag or under his jacket and left the station.
Investigating officer DC Angie Gates said: “We believe that all five incidents are linked and I am keen to speak to anyone who may hold information or knows the person in the CCTV image, who I am keen to speak to and who I believe has information that could help us.
“Defibrillators can save lives and it’s really disappointing that these have been stolen.”
“Defibrillators can save lives and it’s really disappointing that these have been stolen.”
Anyone with any information can contact British Transport Police on 0800 40 50 40 or text 61016 quoting reference 349 10/06/2016.
Defibrillation is a common treatment for life-threatening cardiac dysrhythmias and ventricular fibrillation. Defibrillation consists of delivering a therapeutic dose of electrical current to the heart with a device called a defibrillator. This depolarizes a critical mass of the heart muscle, terminates the dysrhythmia and allows normal sinus rhythm to be reestablished by the body’s natural pacemaker, in the sinoatrial node of the heart.