As the festive season approaches, and the holiday feeling takes over, people are inclined to relax and drop their guard when they’re out and about.
Don’t!
While you are letting your hair down a little and enjoying some much-deserved time off, the criminals are watching and waiting to pounce.
A sure sign is that car theft and hijacking gangs have recently upped the tempo at which they are carrying out their nefarious activities.
In Nelson Mandela Bay alone, more than 160 incidents have been reported in less than a month, according to an article in Weekend Post.
That equates to more than five a day, with seven in just one night recently.
According to a tracking company used by security firms in the metro, lone motorists and delivery trucks are most at risk from these gangs.
Mothers with a child or children in tow are also seen as easy prey.
What is truly frightening, though, is that after robbing the motorist, the hijackers then hold the person at gunpoint in the hijacked vehicle while they ride around in it looking for their next victim.
On identifying a new target, they dump their current victim and vehicle and move on to the next.
While most of the victims have made it through the ordeal physically unscathed, things could so easily go horribly wrong as evidenced last week when a Gqeberha e-hailing driver was stabbed to death after being hijacked.
Truck drivers are also prime targets of crime syndicates looking to make a fast buck from easy-to-dispose-of goods.
This is costing companies millions in lost stock and increased security measures, and you and I are the ones feeling the pinch as they jack up their prices to recoup their losses.
So be alert this festive season.
Do not give the watchful criminals one unguarded moment.
With the police over-stretched and under-resourced and visible policing pie-in-the-sky for the most part, we are pretty much on our own.
While we are all guilty of walking out of shopping centres excited about our purchases and having no thought of any lurking dangers, we need to be more aware.
If you feel uncomfortable about something when you get to your car, rather go back to the shopping centre or venue and get a security guard or someone else to accompany you to your vehicle.
Park in well-lit, busy areas, as close as possible to the entrance of the place you are visiting, and always be aware of who is around you.
HeraldLIVE