The campaign was aimed at alerting shopping mall patrons to the types of crime that are associated with the festive season and to make shoppers aware that criminals start to take more risks in an effort to strike gold.
Sergeant Nicholus Mokwena, social crime prevention co-ordinator of Douglasdale Police Station, said people could fall prey to remote vehicle jamming and ATM thieves during the festive season.
Mokwena said thieves were using remote jamming devices to prevent motorists from locking their cars.
“We are running this campaign to alert people to this kind of theft. A car jammer disturbs the vehicle’s door system from locking, but the car owner would have walked into the mall thinking that the car is locked, only for the thugs to simply open the door and grab laptops or anything of value from the car,” said Mokwena.
According to Mokwena, festive revellers are warned to desist from the habit of accepting help from strangers at ATM machines. He added that criminals were tampering with ATMs and forcing the machines to swallow bank cards, which they then retrieved after somehow acquiring the victim’s PIN and after the victim leaves the scene. The robbers would then withdraw cash from the ATM.
“These thugs can read the PIN numbers from close range. So people must check first if there is anyone close to them before punching in their PIN numbers,” said Mokwena.
The same sentiments were expressed by Night Guard Security manager Michael Shipton, who urged members of the community to immediately visit their offices at Dainfern Square Shopping Centre as soon as they lose their bank cards at ATMs, realise that something is missing from their cars or become a victim of any crime in or around the centre.
“The idea is to tell members of the community who to approach as soon as they become victims of crime,” said Shipton.
Shipton said his guards were patrolling the area 24/7, adding that they were always available to safeguard the personal property of shopping centre patrons.
Details: Night Guard Security 011 468 3333.
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