POLOKWANE – The jamming of car remotes is once again a point of discussion after a resident found herself a victim of robbery last Thursday.
Tarryn Campbell said she parked her vehicle outside Laerskool Pietersburg-Oos’s main gate for a few minutes, and upon her return, found her car door open and her laptop computer and hard drive missing.
She reported the incident to the school and opened a case at the Polokwane police station.
“I was aware of the jamming of car remotes as my husband is an insurance broker and I had read about it in Review. That is why I hid the laptop and hard drive under the seat,” said Campbell.
She said after the incident, she posted something on Facebook to help raise awareness about the new remote jamming trend that happened in schools.
“I got a response from someone who sent a photo of a gold Citi Golf community policing forums believed to be involved in jamming car remotes in the city,” she said.
According to Campbell, the photo was taken near where her car was parked when it was broken into.
She passed the photo on to the police, but when she followed up with the police a week after she made the initial report, they told her that the photo was lost.
“The police admitted that the gold Golf was a big problem, but that until they catch them red-handed, they can’t arrest them. One of the officers told me that the very same day I reported my case three cars were broken into at Capricorn High School,” she said.
According to posts made on Facebook by members of different CPFs, the Golf had been seen in different parts of the city dropping off people in parking lots then driving around the block and returning to pick them up.
According to the management of Edwel Community Policing Forum they were aware of the vehicle for some time now, but were reluctant to give any further information on the vehicle or share the photograph.
Polokwane police spokesperson, Capt Ntobeng Phala, said he was not aware of the vehicle and would take up the matter in the next meeting at the station.
He advised residents to be on the lookout for vehicles like these and should make a point of using their cellphones to capture videos and pictures of suspicious looking cars and share them with their CPFs, as well as the police.
Neither one of the schools could be reached to verify if they were aware of robberies.
