According to the Rapid Response Unit (RRU) Commandant in Kenya, Joel Anguma, Kenyan car thieves have become more technically sophisticated. Car robbers these days plan how to steal these cars, study their target, find a sales market and share the proceedings.
Below are some of the tactics that these car thieves are now well known to be using in Kenya.
Disguised car break down
These robbers usually park a car beside the road and one of them stands conspicuously next to the car with a small Jerry-can indicating their car has run out of fuel and they need a lift to the next petrol station.
The good Samaritan victim will stop and offer a ride. Once the perpetrator is in the car, he points a gun at the victim and orders him to drive to a certain direction where he/she will then be joined by other robbers. They will then drive the victim to his/her house, rob them of valuables and take them to their ATM branch to withdraw their money.
In some cases the victims are tranquilized and become unconscious for a few days. All the while the robbers keep making trips to an ATM with his card until they max it out. Quite likely they will keep the victim passed the midnight turnover so as to maximize two days of ATM withdrawals.
Survivors of these attacks generally co-operate with the thieves and not resist in any way in giving PIN numbers, cards, jewelry, phones and other items – by co-operating, usually you will be left in an isolated location after some time.
Ladies Asking For Lifts
This has been a big trap for male drivers for many years. Several male victims have fallen prey to female robbers who ask for rides and end up robbing them at gun point after being joined by awaiting male counterparts. After falling prey, they execute their plan as the latter example above.
Car Owner Identification
This trend is very recent and is mainly orchestrated in crowded areas that have limited parking spaces by the very same watchmen or guards that are responsible for the safety of your vehicle. This mainly happens in various night spots in Kenya with the watchmen waving around a placard to identify the owner of a targeted vehicle. Once identified, the guard will either identify the car owner to the thieves or leads him to an otherwise ‘poorly’ parked car where the robbers lay in wait.
Road Diversions And Barricades
Although this is the most common form of carjacking tactic used in Kenya, it is also important to realize that the robbers have come up with new tricks to appeal to your sense of charity and rob you shortly thereafter.
Scenarios like jumping onto an oncoming car and pretending that the pedestrian is injured is one of the ways they use to get you to slow down and even get out of your car to check on the ‘injured’. The aftermath is shock after realizing that you have fallen prey.
Many have also commonly come to beware of the stones and vegetation placed on a road mainly at night and in secluded areas in a bid to make the driver slow down for the same kind of awaiting fate – this is also dangerous especially if you are not conversant with the area well enough.
Often these roadblocks are placed over a rise in the road, or around a sharp bend.
Robbers in wait.
This is mainly due to the regularity in your daily routine that prompts thieves to note your movements. This type of robbery mainly takes place within your daily route and more incidences of people being robbed outside their house or office gates while they await house occupants to open it.
These types of robberies are carefully orchestrated in advance and in the chance they go bad, almost always end up in fatality – mainly due to house occupants raising the alarm. Its worth planning a response in advance with your house occupants.
In other circumstances, when house occupants see you being robbed or taken away in a car, they call the police who open fire indiscriminately when the car is traced, occasionally killing victims as well as criminals.
PLEASE BE CAUTIOUS AT ALL TIMES.
REMEMBER TO SHARE THIS WITH COLLEAGUES & FRIENDS. YOU MIGHT SAVE A LIFE
