A mum has been left "disheartened" after her son was "chased" in an attempted robbery at a park in Hornchurch whilst out on a run.
The mum-of-two, who wishes to remain anonymous, spoke with this paper, revealing her "shock" after the alleged incident in St Andrews Park on the afternoon of April 27.
She said: "It was a gorgeous evening. He left the house and went off on his run - he's into that. All he does is go to school, does sport, and you know not much else but spend a bit of time with his friends, and does his studies."
Whilst warming up in the park, she claims her son saw two young people enter from Bellevue Road, noticing that "they started chasing him".
She said: "He knew he was getting chased, so he started making his way for the exit. I think he was trying to get home. He's quite quick but he lost his footing - obviously he was panicked, you can imagine.
"You don't know what they're going to do, do you? You don't know what their intentions are.
"They caught up with him and they cornered him just outside the park gates."
It was at this point that the alleged attempted robbery took place, only to be stopped by "two good Samaritans" who were able to safely separate the 14-year-old and accompany him home.
The mum-of-two, who grew up in the borough, said the pair filled her in on the incident.
She said: "They just stood there and told me everything that had happened in the last sort of ten minutes.
"It was quite shocking. It's just really upsetting to be honest because you think on a lovely spring evening, our youngsters should be able to go out on something as simple as to be able to go out and do a run.
"For them not to be able to have that independence now is just really, it's just disappointing and upsetting."
She believes the lack of "consequences" is behind such incidents, with kids thinking "they can go around doing whatever".
The incident was reported to the Metropolitan Police, with officers conducting enquiries and viewing CCTV.
However, a spokesperson for the police force confirmed that the case had had to be closed due to "limited" CCTV opportunities in the park.
The young teen's mum said: "These culprits are so brazen. They don't care because there's no consequences.
"It's really disheartening. When they get into secondary school, all they want is independence and you want to give them some to a degree. He just went out for something as simple as a 5k run.
"Our kids in the borough can't even do that now without fear - it's a disgrace. It's a disgrace to whoever is in charge of the amount of police that is on our streets.
"It's just so sad. If he stops being able to go out and doing exercise and doing fitness then they've won, haven't they?
"It doesn't seem fair."
The Metropolitan Police provided an updated comment after additional CCTV was submitted.
A spokesperson said: "Officers received and reviewed CCTV footage, but no identification has been possible.
"The footage has been added to the crime report, which remains closed but could be re-opened if any further evidence becomes available."
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