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I have received email-chains from friends on recounts on people who have been carjacked, how it happened, & where. Admittedly I have only skimmed these emails, picking out keywords on the locations & the MO used.
I am writing this post with interest now because over the weekend, a colleague fell victim to such a crime. For me it was close enough to home.
Coming out of a highway & just after paying the toll, my colleague & her husband’s car was hit by a car from behind. Pulling over & alighting to check the damage, the culprits from the car behind snatched the keys from the husband’s hand & very quickly got into the driver’s seat. Immediately aware of what was going on, husband ran to the front passenger side where my colleague was still seated with the belt on. Husband managed to get colleague out of the car before the culprits drove away, but not before superficially injuring colleagues arm in tugging / pulling her out of the car with the seatbelt in the way.
Recalling the incident, colleague said that their car has an engine immobiliser installed, so their car did not actually get very far (though I am unsure what “far” means). She also recounted that the initial gang of 2 suddenly became 4- she couldn’t recall where & when the extra 2 appeared from. I guess it was also when they made the police report that they found out that there were 2 other such cases that day.
The first time I heard the term “carjacking” would easily have been 20 years ago during my uni days; where these cases seemed more prevalent in the US, at least then.
I am not bashing the country. I am, however, interested in how the US public has “evolved” to address such a crime since it started there so many years ago: What measures to take, any new technologies available, tell-tale signs to look out for, & what “simple” precautions the public should take. Carjacking in Malaysia at least to me, seems like quite a new crime, so most of the public are still not aware of it & many fall prey to it.
I can’t help picturing the what-if’s- if it had happened to me, with Caitlin still in the backseat. Shudder shudder
Readers whose countries have already taken measures to address this crime, what are the precautions the public are encouraged to adopt, technically & non-technically?
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