LETTERS Strangers in the night
Sir: Did George Wigg kerb-crawl? Was he unfairly picked on by the police? (Letters, 28 November.) Well, I believe the answer is yes to the first, no to the second.
Wiggy (as he was also known locally) lived in those days in a basement flat in Pimlico, central London. So did I, and our gardens backed on to each other a few houses apart. I rarely saw Wiggy during the daytime and in fact did not know him by sight initially. However, nightly I used to take my dog out for a late walk and that is when I got to recognise the good lord.
The first time, I was standing at lead's length from a lamppost just around the cor- ner from my flat when a car driving on side- lights drifted past and slowed to a stop. The driver peered out at me. At first I thought it was yet another person who had lost his way in Pimlico's maze of one-way streets and was about to step forward to help him.
But a girl gets to recognise the lost from the lascivious, and the driver was most defi- nitely not lost. Neither was he looking for a parking space — there were plenty in those days. So I stepped back on to the pave- ment, the dog and I went on our way and he drove off. Next day, I described the driv- er to a neighbour and by chance, a few days later, happened to recognise the kerb- crawler walking in the street, while I was talking to this same neighbour, who knew Lord Wigg: two and two made four.
By the third time that Wiggy and I passed each other on our nightly missions, I was wary enough to recognise the car from a distance and march on without a glance sideward. He never talked to me, or propo- sitioned me, but I knew then and have been sure since that Lord Wigg was not just an innocent passer-by.
When news came of his arrest, no one knew the reason (or at least the average man in the street didn't, as it was not pub- lished in the press). So when I announced to colleagues on the medical magazine for which I then worked that I knew Wigg had been arrested for kerb-crawling — or if not he should have been and about time too not a soul believed me. But that is exactly what he was arrested for.
Should I have spoken up when it was in the news? Frankly, it didn't occur to me then as I was too busy with other things. And by the time the hapless arresting officer came in for some criticism, it was all too late.
Pat Blair
36 Doddington Grove, London SE17
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