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The Mercury<\/p>\n
The interior of this Toyota Hilux was completely stripped by thieves in less than 20 minutes in an attempt to remove the tracking unit.<\/p>\n
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Durban – Hijackers are targeting Durban suburbs again with at least 11 hijackings occurring between Monday and Saturday last week. <\/p>\n
Areas hit include Morningside (Florida Road); Westville; Greenwood Park; Malvern; Montclair; Reservoir Hills; Mariannhill, Wenworth and elsewhere on the Bluff – but police warn that no area is safe. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Police spokesman Jay Naicker said the greater Durban area was seeing more cases reported than anywhere else in the province, with suspects moving from one suburb to another due to \u201cincreased police operations to target them\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe should never be complacent,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Although Naicker would not release recent statistics, a police source revealed that in the upper Highway area over the past seven weeks, 23 hijackings had occurred in Pinetown, which included Kloof, Wyebank, Ashley, Westmead and Cowies Hill. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe maximum they had was three in one day and the longest period without a hijacking was three days. There was one hijacking a day (in this period) with two days seeing two hijackings. <\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know if the community would think that is high or low (but) to police it is quite stable,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
A vehicle tracking agent, who asked not to be named, said Pinetown, Westville, Sydenham and Overport were current hotspots for hijackings and vehicle thefts, while the Sydenham Community Policing Forum reported three hijackings the week before last. <\/p>\n
Altech Netstar reported hijackings had increased in May and June and said its current hotspots included Chatsworth; Montclair; Umlazi; Wentworth; Isipingo; Phoenix; KwaMashu and Pinetown. <\/p>\n
Matrix vehicle tracking said its hijacking and theft statistics in Durban had increased 21 percent year-on-year, with spokesman Grant Fraser predicting the number could spike again now that the third school term has begun. <\/p>\n
\u201cWith the school holidays coming to an end, motorists will resume their daily routines. This habitual behaviour gives rise to predictable movements and increases the likelihood of criminals familiarising themselves with motorists\u2019 actions,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
On Wednesday, a 41-year-old woman was hijacked in Northdene as she was about to take her son to school at 7am. She was confronted by two men who demanded her keys and handbag. One of the men took her car while the other, who had been hiding in a bush, ran off. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe appeal to the community to be especially vigilant in their driveways, parking lots, shopping centres and vehicle intersections as hijackers target vehicle-owners in these areas,\u201d Naicker said. <\/p>\n
On Thursday evening, a 63-year-old Durban man, who asked not to be named, was hijacked while dropping his three grandchildren off at a home in Florida Road in Morningside. <\/p>\n
\u201cI walked up the driveway and the kids ran past me to the gate. Two guys then pushed me up against the wall and asked for my cellphone and wallet. They took my car keys and Corsa bakkie.\u201d <\/p>\n
The man said that the three five-year-olds, who had witnessed the incident, ran inside the house and started crying. <\/p>\n
Craig White, national recoveries manager for Bidtrack, said its statistics for the past year showed that hijackings in KZN had increased by 36 percent, and that tracking units were being removed at a much faster rate, with vehicle interiors completely stripped in less than 20 minutes. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe targeted vehicles are still predominantly luxury SUVs, light delivery vehicles and smaller closed-back trucks. <\/p>\n
\u201cIn KZN we also still have a lot of the smaller, popular hatchbacks high on the list,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
The vehicle tracking agent was more specific, saying VW Polos, Toyota Corollas, Isuzu bakkies and Toyota Fortuners were still the most popular targets. <\/p>\n
Matrix\u2019s top five hijacked vehicle brands are Toyota, VW, Nissan, Hyundai and Fiat. <\/p>\n
Naicker said the provincial police commissioner had formed a multi-disciplinary task team made up of members of the Flying Squad, the K9 unit, metro police, Tracker and the Department of Transport Special Operations to deal with hijackings. <\/p>\n
\u201cSince April, this team has recovered 58 vehicles, arrested 43 suspects and seized 11 firearms. This is over and above the daily operations conducted by police stations,\u201d Naicker said. <\/p>\n
The Mercury<\/strong> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Mercury The interior of this Toyota Hilux was completely stripped by thieves in less than 20 minutes in an attempt to remove the tracking unit. Durban – Hijackers are targeting Durban suburbs again with at least 11 hijackings occurring between Monday and Saturday last week. Areas hit include Morningside (Florida Road); Westville; Greenwood Park; […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[8275,953,2143],"class_list":{"0":"post-21313","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-durban","8":"tag-newspaper","9":"tag-the-mercury","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21313\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}