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Dangerous times the days have now become. Seems to me that there's something wrong with our society the way crimes are just rampant and popping up like mushrooms everywhere.
There have been a lot of buzz about carjacking schemes and I just want to lay out the common ones for the safety of you and your friends who could become the next victim *knock on wood*
Egg Throwing
Suspects will be throwing eggs at your windshield. The initial reaction is for the driver to use the wipers which only hazens and clouts the vision more due to something about the egg that I don't really know what. But it's most likely that you'd stop and when you open up your doors, is when they strike.
With the egg throwing modus, it's best not to panic and use the wipers. Use any window of vision you might have to get to a safer place to stop, probably a gas station where you could have the windshield cleaned up.
Paper-Covered Back
How do you park? With the nose of the car pointed toward the wall or on reverse? You might want to master reverse parking for this one.
Basically, you'd have something, normally paper, that would obstruct your vision as you back up out of your parking. Maybe something small just to hinder rear view mirror vision, which would entail you to get off the car to remove that obstruction. And that's when they strike.
But of course, it's also a possibility that you won't notice it more when you reverse parked. Point is you can at least leave instantly from your parking slot if you reverse parked and drive away to a safe place.
Just make sure you got nothing obstructing your views before riding on your car. Should you find some hindering your vision at the back, just bear with your safely locked car and drive away. Remove it at a safer place, or even better - at home.
Blocking the Parking Slot
This happened to my friends some time ago. They went out to buy some goods, parked their car in front of a mart. Then as they were ready to go, a vehicle was blocking their driveway out of the slot. Of course, the driver went out to knock on the vehicle to move out but that was the time when the criminals plunged into their car, with them still in it.
What happened next was they were escorted by the van out of the area and onto a far away place. They even received threats of being killed. In the end, they were set free off the side of the road.
Buyer Inquiries
This approach appeals more to car buying and selling.
Basically, criminals pose as potential buyers. They take the car off to a test drive, and from there on, the car is gone... sometimes, you'll be gone with the car too.
My departed friend, Venson Evangelista, was a victim of this kind of scheme. R.I.P.
Flat Tire
You basically see a series of people pointing towards your tire as if telling you're flat.
Once you stop to check, they either carjack the car, or help you out to fix your 'tire problem' while some other person steals the loot of your car from one side.
Flat Tire v2
You come back to your car with a flat tire. Luckily, somebody (normally dressed very well) offers to help you out.
Creative Carjacking Method? LOL. (via GettyImages)
Once all goes well and you manage to change tires, the 'helper' then asks for a ride as s/he is not parked too far away so s/he's basically wanting to hitch for a shorter trip to his/her car.
What you would not expect is that this so-called helper might take over the car once inside.
I've heard reports of a foiled plot like this where the lady opted to give his helper a ride. The guy rides the car, but she then asks to wait and then alerts a security guard of her helper wanting to hitch a ride and asks for assistance by riding with them. They return with the guy missing and the suitcase left in the car. What's inside the suitcase? Oh nothing... just some ductape, rope, and a knife.
There are probably lots more schemes as criminals are becoming creative in a not-so-good way. Just be alert when you go out into the real world. You don't know what's ahead of you and when something seems strange, then it probably is strange and something might be wrong in the scenario. Carefully analyze things as you may become victim to these nasty carjackers.