Tom Cruise has packed up and left his £35 million ($47.9 million) London apartment after a nearby Rolex shop was the target of a smash-and-grab robbery.
The Hollywood star was a low-key but familiar presence in the Knightsbridge area, but is said to have acted swiftly after the robbery, in which thieves on motorbikes used claw hammers and machetes to steal 20 watches worth hundreds of thousand of pounds, in the daylight attack last month.
The Bucherer Rolex boutique is on the ground floor of the One Hyde Park residential building, which was developed by billionaire Nick Candy.
Weeks earlier, a shop for luxury Italian fashion brand Loro Piana, a short walk from Harrods, was hit in a car ram raid, with clothing and handbags stolen.
This weekend, robbers were filmed by shoppers as they smashed their way through the window of a jewellery shop in Richmond, south-west London, as staff desperately tried to clear the display shelves. Richmond has become well known as the setting and filming location for the TV series Ted Lasso.
The incidents have added to concerns that London is no longer safe, a reputation that the retail industry, police and the city's mayor, Sadiq Khan, say is unfair. Concerns were raised after a series of street thefts involving "Rolex Rippers" targeted people wearing expensive watches or holding phones.
Last year, a man was stabbed to death a few hundred yards from the Rolex boutique, outside The Park Tower Knightsbridge hotel. Police have since emphasised London’s low murder rate and their determination to tackle issues such as shoplifting.
However, those efforts do not appear to have been enough to reassure Cruise, 63, who enjoyed running in Hyde Park or walking in the area.
“The over-aggressive attack on the store below cemented the lack of security surrounding the multimillion-pound flats where Cruise lives," a source close to Cruise told The Daily Mail.
“It seems like Knightsbridge is becoming less safe by the week. He just felt the area has declined in the past year or two.”
