E-hailing services a target of hijackers
SANDRINGHAM – The potential hijackers may masquerade as requesters with false profile information.
The Sandringham Police Station has issued a warning to e-hailing drivers to be wary of hijackers.
Spokesperson Warrant Officer Aaron Lebuso said the beginning of the year has seen a lot of hijackings on Uber and Bolt drivers in the precinct.
He added that most of those being hijacked would have been requested from either Sandton, Midrand or Alexandra and the requester would give a destination address in Lombardy East.
“During the drop-off, then that’s when they turn-around, attack the driver and take the car. So far, we have a few cases under investigation, so we want to warn the Uber and Bolt drivers to be careful, especially when the request is to this side of Sandringham.
For now, we propose that, when they receive such a request, just call the police station and make them aware and request a van to meet them at the drop-off zone,” Lebuso advised.
He suggested that if the drivers know each other, they should group themselves and create a WhatsApp group where they will notify each other about their movements
. Also, if they can obtain contact numbers of security companies of the aforementioned areas they work in, they could also include them in their WhatsApp groups so that when they drive to the Sandringham precinct side, they can notify them.
“We believe they target Lombardy East because it has many exit routes leading to the highway, Riverpark and Alexandra. There was one incident where a hijacked Uber vehicle fitted with a tracker got traced back to Alex, abandoned there. It might be that the requesters use false information to request and it makes it difficult to track them down.”
He said the police had met with about five of the Uber drivers in the area and tried to set up a proper meeting to come up with preventative measures against this.
“We would like to let them know to contact the police because if we can get as many of them as possible, we can come up with feasible preventative measures.”
Details: Drivers may contact Warrant Officer Lebuso on 082 552 0024.
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