Around eight years ago, warning bells rang out via the media alerting motorists of car jammers lurking in parking lots, waiting to strike unattended vehicles. Well, a lot has happened since 2016 and perhaps, despite the many warning signs erected around parking lots and garage forecourts, car-jammers have slipped our collective petty theft radar. Not So! Car jammers continue to ply their trade, as FleetWatch editor Patrick O’Leary recently discovered after an act of brazen opportunism – captured by forecourt CCTV in under 30 seconds! FleetWatch correspondent Paul Collings tells Patrick’s story, as does the video footage,
It was late afternoon, a hot one. Patrick was on his way back from an event and needed a cool drink. He swung into a petrol station quick-shop for a can of Diet Coke to keep his blood sugar at premium performance levels. This type of retail therapy takes him no more than five minutes to complete, normally.
On the day in question, he was back at his car in four minutes (he was in a rush, as usual). He climbed behind the wheel of his five-door car and muscle memory kicked in – key in ignition, reach for the phone which was on the passenger seat hidden under a jacket undergoing a protracted charging session on a power bank – or so he thought. His left hand came up empty!
A sudden thud struck his chest cavity. His eyes darted to where he left his phone. Nada! Gone. He searched the floor wells and under the seats. He climbed out the car and checked all his pockets. He traced his steps back into the shop but found no sign of his phone or the phone itself.
“I never, ever, leave my phone in the car but it had run flat and I needed to make one or two urgent calls so before going into the shop, I attached it to a power bank and put it under my jacket on the passenger seat. I thought it would be safe as I would only be a few minutes gone and I had parked right in front of the entrance to the shop. BIG MISTAKE,” he recalls.
Realising that it had been stolen, it was then he exploded. “Some low-life criminal has got into my car and stolen my phone.” But how could it have been stolen? After all, he had locked the car with the remote. His raised voice caught the attention of all the forecourt attendants who came across assuring him that no-one had seen anything untoward. And they hadn’t.
One of the guys said they had cameras and he would ask the manager to check. It took about five minutes for the manager to emerge with his cell phone. “I’m sorry sir, but these guys got into your car,” he said as he played the video which he had transferred to his phone from his CCTV system. They both stood watching the nefarious act go down, Patrick taking rapid and deep gulps of his Diet Coke.
The video shows two guys in a car swooping in next to Patrick’s car (driver’s side) a second or two after he enters the shop. The driver parks askew, ready for a rapid exit. The driver’s cohort springs out the passenger side and casually tries the driver door latch. It opens and the thief leans in, fumbles around, pulls himself up straight and goes to the boot of the car. That doesn’t open (“Nice!”). He then tries a rear passenger door (driver’s side) to see if he can get to the boot from inside the car. He can’t.
He climbs out cool as you like and closes the hatchback’s passenger door while spinning on his heels as the driver reverses to obscure the scene from the eyes of motorists at the fuel pumps. The culprit opens the getaway car passenger door and executes a running mount (like Lee Van Cleef in that spaghetti western), and off into the sunset they ride, with Patrick’s phone!
“All of this criminal activity happened in less than 30 seconds! And nobody noticed anything untoward! Unbelievable! So brazen!” said Patrick to the manager after watching the brief but vile scene play out.
He knew the video wouldn’t help the cops catch the thieves as the quality of the video was not good enough to recognize the number plates and even if it was, they were probably false. And the face of the thief wasn’t clear either. The manager also admitted this saying they were planning to install better quality cameras.
“But how did they get in? I locked the car,” Patrick asked. It then dawned on him. He emitted a strong, raspy laugh – followed with: “AAARGH! I forgot all about CAR JAMMERS and I hadn’t made sure my car doors were locked after pressing the remote and walking away! They jammed my signal.”
“Can you email the video to me,” he asked the manager. “I want to show others how fast these guys operate. I made two crucial mistakes and there are some lessons here.”
Equipped with a new phone, Patrick reflects: “I guess I was lucky that I didn’t have my camera gear or my laptop in the car. But, losing a phone is bad enough. The headache of replacing a cellphone, not to mention more valuable stuff, is familiar territory for most of us, not to mention the dent one receives in the wallet. But, there’s a takeaway from all of this, and it’s not a cool drink.” So here’s Patrick’s official FleetWatch Public Service Announcement:
“BEWARE and BE AWARE of CAR JAMMERS! These guys can outsmart the latest electronic keyless car-locking tech, clearly! Car jammers have one shot at blocking your car remote’s signal and that’s when you press the button on the key toggle to lock the doors and leave the vehicle. Let others learn from my mistake. Most parking lots have warning signs of jamming displayed and as this experience shows, those warning signs are there for a good reason.
“PLEASE, PEOPLE – BEFORE YOU WALK AWAY FROM YOUR VEHICLE – CAR OR TRUCK – DOUBLE-CHECK THAT THE DOORS ARE LOCKED! And don’t ever leave your cell phone in your vehicle – even if you’re only going to be a few minutes – and even if it’s hidden. I broke those two sacrosanct rules – and it cost me my phone, not to mention the horrible feeling of my personal and private space being invaded by criminals.”
Patrick’s anti-car jamming message is not just for you truckers out there but also for all motorists in the fold. Be sure to share it with your tribe.
