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Every 25 minutes, a vehicle is hijacked in South Africa.
Between January and March of this year, 5 402 hijackings took place in SA’s main metros.
That’s from the latest data published by the South African Police Service (SAPS), painting that still-grim picture of our country.
Alarmingly, there’s also been a recent shift in hijacking trends where criminal syndicates and hijackers are changing their tactics and adapting to new and improved vehicle technology.
Duma Ngcobo, the chief operating officer for Tracker South Africa, notes via BusinessTech how many cars now have a ‘push to start’ button, allowing criminals to make use of key reprogrammers and signal grabbers to steal cars.
Jammers are also frequently used in public places such as malls, gyms, and other high-traffic areas or outside ATMs.
Another new method is really true to the times:
“One of the things that has happened, unfortunately – and 2020 was a real game changer – was that the probability that people are ordering stuff to be delivered to their homes has increased significantly.”
Because of this, Ngcobo said that people are now being targeted when they wait at their gate for delivery, with the gate being blocked by a criminal, allowing them to gain entry into the property and access to vehicles.
Hijackers have also started to take advantage of folks when they’re most relaxed, unaware, or distracted, AKA having a blast at stadiums and other sporting events that are allowing fans back at full capacity now.
Not much has changed in terms of the vehicles and vehicle types that are targetted by hijackers, though.
Ngcobo said bakkies continue to be high on the list for the probability of getting hijacked, while security company Fidelity’s recent data shows hijackers most often targeted Toyota and Volkswagen vehicles.
The most stolen models continue to be Toyota Hiluxes, Volkswagen Polos, Toyota Quantums, and Nissan NP200s.
Stay vigilant out there.
[source:businesstech]
