You have heard of credit card theft. But have you heard of thieves who can tamper with your car alarm system?
They jam locks and break into vehicles by remote control. This is happening mostly in South Africa but, according the general manager at Barloworld Motors, Ian Utting, such thieves are upon us here in Botswana.
“We had first-hand experience over the weekend when a colleague stopped at the Middleburg Ultra City on his way to our DP conference. He got out, locked his car (an Audi) and went to the bathroom.
On returning, he went to the boot to take out his lap top so he could have a cup of coffee and do some work. It was gone,” says Utting.
Utting said the victim would not recall if the car was open or not when he got because you also push the remote when you get back to the car.
The businessman says they mentioned this to a few people and were told this happened to one of the Barloworld customers at Game City with his pay roll.
“He had drawn the money, put it in the boot, and locked the car. When he got back it was gone,” he says.
The modus operandi is that perpetrators sit at shopping centers and watch you drive in. As you get out and walk away, casually pressing the remote as you normally do, they activate their jamming device, which works on the same frequency. This in turn causes the locking mechanism to not
operate and the doors to not lock.
“This is real, so make sure you watch that button go down before moving away from your car. The lights may flash and the hooter might peep, but beware,” warns Utting.