The Boy Who Lived, Daniel Radcliffe, Helps Injured Muggle Mugging Victim

Image by Getty Images

By Jenny Singer July 17, 2017

Harry Potter has “a bit of a saving-people thing” and so, it seems, does Daniel Radcliffe. The 27 year-old professional wizard slash self-resuscitated-teen-icon-turned-bonafide-artist (we love him) was one of several passersby who rushed to the aid of a mugging victim in London today, according to the Evening Standard.

Pottermore, eat your heart out. This is the real “Harry Potter” sequel we need.

According to David Videcette, a former counter-terrorist for the London police department who called the police after witnessing the crime, two men on mopeds cornered a man on a Chelsea side street, cut his face with a knife, seized his Louis Vuitton handbag, and sped off. A group of people, including Radcliffe, rushed to assist the victim, a man in his fifties, who was in London on vacation. Videcette, calling the interaction “surreal”, turned to the actor and said, “You’re Daniel Radcliffe.” Radcliffe responded, “I am.” The actor’s representatives have confirmed that he was at the scene, but Potter fans needed no clarification—Harry Potter pretty much always shows up where there’s trouble. After all, “Help is always given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it.”

As amusing and reminiscent of Sirius Black’s famed motorbike as this incident may seem to Americans, moped gangs in London have been responsible for a major wave of recent violence, including one group that has terrorized the city with 103 crime events over the last 18 days. The mugging that Radcliffe witnessed occurred hours after police apprehended that gang.

For now, as JK Rowling might say, all is well.

Jenny Singer is a writer for the Forward. You can reach her at Singer@forward.com or on Twitter @jeanvaljenny.

Jenny Singer is a freelance writer with pieces in Vox, the Washington Post, The San Francisco Chronicle, Teen Vogue, and more. She was previously a staff writer at Glamour and the Forward, and she’s currently getting an MFA in nonfiction writing at the University of Iowa.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO