Police records revealed that, despite advances in technology, public awareness, and intensified police visibility, car theft remains a serious problem.
Multiple vehicles were in separate incidents reportedly stolen or broken into while parked in the different parking areas in the CBD, since the beginning of this year.
The police reports also show that car thieves are targeting prestige or luxury vehicles.
This time, three vehicles were in separate incidents reportedly stolen from three different locations in the CBD, and an additional two others vehicles were reportedly stolen elsewhere within the Boksburg policing precinct.
An Impala Park man returned to find his Nissan NP200 stolen after he parked it in one of the vehicle crime hotspots in the Boksburg CBD on April 25.
The driver parked his vehicle in the roadside parking on the corner of Commissioner and Eloff streets just after 9am, but when he returned at about 3pm it was nowhere to be found.
A Parkdene woman parked her silver Ford Ranger in the Checkers Hyper parking lot at about 1.30pm on April 27, but when she returned an hour later the vehicle was gone.
On April 28 thieves stole a Boksburg North man’s green Isuzu bakkie from the Market Street roadside parking.
In other vehicle crime reported elsewhere, a Parkdene man had his silver Toyota Etios stolen while parked outside his home on Heldzinger Street on April 30.
Another vehicle, an Inyathi kombi, was stolen from the parking lot outside Bokkie Park on April 28. The driver, a Benoni woman, told the police that she parked the vehicle at about 9am, but when she returned to the parking area about four hours later the car was gone.
These thefts were the latest in a string of thefts targeting parking areas across the city.
Boksburg SAPS spokesperson Sgt Cebisa Maseko said the police are concerned about the rising car theft. She reminded drivers to always take the following precautions to minimise the chance of being targeted.
• Double-check that your vehicle is locked before walking away from it just in case thieves block your remote signal preventing it from locking the doors.
• Don’t leave your car running unattended. It only takes some opportunist thieves a couple of seconds to jump into your car and drive away.
• Don’t leave valuables within view in your vehicle, they are theft magnets
• Add to your security equipment things like a steering wheel lock, gear lock, and pedal lock.
Maseko, however, indicated that these precautions aren’t always infallible but they do provide some deterrents for opportunistic theft.
