The summer months are the ones that register the greatest number of long-distance trips around the country. Specifically, the DGT forecasts that some 95 million trips of this type will be made during this July and August. And it’s this time of year that highway robbers have the most victims on their radar. For this reason, the Mossos d’Esquadra have shared a new video on their social networks with the aim of alerting the public about the modus operandi of these criminals. It is about being aware and not letting your guard down during your travels.
According to data provided by the Catalan police, in 2022, some 3,500 robberies perpetrated on highways and highways were reported. Of these, 350 (that is, 10%) were forcefully inside the vehicle or by theft of fuel; 700 (20%) corresponded to theft of cargo from trucks parked in rest areas; while the vast majority, 2,450 (70%), were thefts due to carelessness or deceit.
So that criminals don’t have it so easy, the Mosssos d’Esquadra show how they act by publishing real videos in which highway robbers can be seen in action. In Moveo we have previously shown some of them and now we do the same with the most recent one, shared on Twitter.
In the images, recorded by a camera located inside the victim’s car, you can see how the criminal’s vehicle – it looks like a white BMW X1 – stops in front of it on a highway rest area. The driver gets out of the car addressing the victim to distract her; Right after, without her noticing her, the buddy gets out, who stealthily approaches her car to open the passenger door and take the valuables inside. She proceeds quickly, and within seconds, she’s back in the car waiting for her robbery partner to return. He also does it fast. In the blink of an eye they disappear with the loot.
As explained by the regional police, it is common for criminals to try to deceive the victim -often an older person, since they are more vulnerable and easy to entangle- making them believe that they have a breakdown or some problem in the vehicle. Once they have managed to make it stop on the shoulder or a rest area, that is when they apply the modus operandi explained above.
For this reason, the Mossos d’Esquadra advise us to be very cautious and not let our guard down in case someone warns us that we have a problem with the vehicle while we are driving. In strange situations, it is advisable to err on the side of mistrust and proceed as follows:
To prevent criminals from acting, on July 15 the so-called robbery prevention track was deployed on the AP-7. The BRIMO, Traffic, UOM (Mobility Operational Unit) units and other activated endowments detected several attempted thefts. The balance was two detainees and four identified.
Recently, the police also alerted -once again- of the recurring rear-view mirror scam. In this case, the criminals travel in a vehicle with a foreign license plate and cause a collision with the victim’s car, in such a way that the damage affects the rear-view mirror (hence the name of the scam).
The strategy is to blame the other motorist for the accident and show that they are in a hurry to return to their country. This is how they overwhelm and put pressure on the victim. After a big scene, in which other cronies intervene, they get the victim to pay a large amount of money in cash for the repair, believing that the insurance company will pay it later. Something that will never happen.
