adminSO far, this year, 334 cases of car thefts have been reported in the country.
That’s a considerably huge number and it shows that the criminals are upping their game when it comes to targeting our vehicles.
Some of these criminals are quite sophisticated and authorities believe there are cartels, across the entire Southern African region, engaging in theft of cars.
On Monday, police came up with another message in which they urged motorists to be vigilant as the cases of car theft continue to spike across the country.
That is after they released statistics which showed that, between January and September, about 334 cases were reported to the police.
This was revealed by Detective Johannes Chitiki, from CID Press and Public Relations, who said the carjackers were now working day and night.
“As police, we continue to urge the motoring public to keep vehicles locked at all times, even when driving,” said Detective Chitiki.
“When parked, never leave your keys in the car, or leave your car running and unattended
“Make it a habit to physically check that the doors are locked and windows are closed.
“They can steal the vehicle in order to commit other crimes and use it as a getaway car which they abandon afterwards.
“Some steal in order to re-sell the vehicle or break it before selling spare parts.”
He added the criminals were becoming more sophisticated by each passing day and urged motorists to reinforce their security measures.
“These include physical barriers, which make the effort of stealing the vehicle more difficult, such as steering-wheel locks and immobilisers.
“These immobilisers allow the vehicle to start only if a key containing the correct chip is present in the ignition and it works by locking the steering wheel and disabling the ignition.
“There are also what we call deterrents which cause a vehicle to make a sound if it has been tampered with and these include car alarm systems and anti-hijack devices to mention but a few.”
It’s our responsibility to ensure that we try, as much as we can, to secure our vehicles.
We can’t behave as if it’s business as usual and become complacent to even leave our car keys on the ignition, as many have been doing so, which attracts these criminals.
We have to be careful about the times we drive around, especially in the major cities, where statistics show that most car jackings happen during the night.
We also need to avoid certain risky areas, especially under the cover of darkness, and choose to use safer routes, even if it’s likely to cost us more, in terms of the fuel we will spend driving along those routes.
It’s better to have a bigger fuel bill than to lose your car and suffer the psychological scars, which come with dealing with the trauma inflicted by such rough incidents.
The police can only do so much and we must play a bigger role, in terms of securing our property, especially when it comes to vehicles.
Mathew Masinge
Online Reporter