Anti-jamming device not as effective as expected

Hopes were raised and crime fighters thought they had won the battle against remote vehicle car-lock jammings but the celebration was short lived.

This is the view of Professor Ncube, area manager for one of the shopping centre’s managing agents responsible for a number of shopping centres around Randburg and some parts of Roodepoort.

“The problem is that criminals operate on another level. They are always one step ahead, they seem to be training at a good university,” shared Ncube.

The anti-jamming device became known around 2012 and Ncube said most shopping centres purchased the device with the aim and hope of curbing theft out of motor vehicles that occurs because of car-lock jammings, which is a growing problem in the country.

Car-lock jamming is the process where a criminal uses a garage or gate remote that operates on the same frequency as a motorist’s car remote to block it from locking.

“The criminal presses the remote at the same time as the motorist, and the signal is interfered with, resulting in the car failing to lock,” explained Ncube. As soon as the driver is out of sight, valuable items can be taken with ease or the vehicle itself is stolen, without an alarm being triggered.

Ncube said that the vehicle anti-lock jamming device sends an alert to the security guard on site whenever there is an attempt to interfere or jam a vehicle’s locking system. “The only problem is that the device does not give a signal or the direction of where the jamming attempt is taking place so at times the guard has to go through a huge parking lot and never gets to identify where the jamming is taking place,” explained Ncube.

With this being the case, the device’s main purpose of curbing crime never happens and criminals still manage to operate, and steal from customers.

Related articles: Car jammers caught in stakeout, Honeydew police’s campaign to lower theft out of motor vehicles