According to Brigadier Alan Billings, station commander at the Sandton Police Station, arrested suspects have confirmed that they earn as much as R15 000 per week.
Signal jamming involves the suspect using an ordinary gate remote control, costing an average of R80, to prevent a motorist’s car from locking.
“When you push your remote to lock your car at a shopping centre or restaurant, they push their remote at the same time. The two signals interfere with each other and the vehicle is prevented from locking,” explained Billings.
Suspects then, seemingly innocently, roam up to the vehicle that they have prevented from locking, open the doors and help themselves to any loot that may have been left behind by motorists, including laptops, tablets, iPad’s, phones, bags and so on.
Most gate remotes, purchased from any security store will do the job. According to Captain Shaun Robson, the station’s expert in the field, one easily-available remote can work from as far away as 1km. “The suspect could be standing next to us, and could jam the signal of a ‘locking’ car all the way down the road,” said Robson.
The devices are also able to stop more than one car from opening at a time.
There are devices available that can help police and security to detect if these devices are being used, and these have led to a number of arrests being made by the Sandton police.
Billings however urges residents to be extremely vigilant in making sure that their vehicles are actually locked. “You need to physically check the door handle to ensure that the vehicle is actually locked. It is so easy, motorists need to protect themselves against this type of crime,” said Billings.
Signal jamming hotspots include petrol stations, schools, shopping centres and fast food restaurants.
Police are currently in the process of arranging a meeting with Icassa (The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa), and Business Against Crime to see if a solution can be found, but this is still at a very early stage.
Try it yourself. Take a photo or video of yourself using your personal gate remote control to test if your car’s locking signal can be jammed by it. Post this on Sandton Chronicle’s Facebook page and tell us if you succeeded or not.
