AFTER saving for years so you can finally buy your dream car, your dream comes true and, walking confidently to the car dealer, you know that nothing can now stop you.
Having completed all the necessary purchase documents, the beaming car dealer hands you the keys to your new car, and as you drive off, you picture yourself cruising around for several years before selling it.
But in Dar es Salaam and other parts of the country, this dream could be shattered within a few hours, thanks to an emerging racket of professional car thieves who are always lurking nearby.
A survey by the ‘Sunday News’ has discovered that despite all the sophisticated car alarms installed in most cars, the thieves can drive away with your dream car without waking the dog sleeping next to it.
Talking to our reporter on condition of anonymity, a ‘retired’ car thief, Juma Abdallah (not his real name) confessed that in some cases stealing a car installed with an alarm is not as difficult as most people believe.
“First, you put a screwdriver up to the window of the car you are going to break into and hit it with a hammer.
When you are sitting in the car, there is no need to hotwire it. Just put the flathead screwdriver into the keyhole (it won’t fit) and hit it with the hammer, not to hard because you might damage the car in some way” he said.
He said that when the screwdriver is in the keyhole, you then turn it and the car will start…. “You proceed to drive away just like you own the car,” he said.
Car hire and rental companies are the most exposed when it comes to vehicle theft. Our survey revealed that most companies in the industry lose their vehicles to thieves who pose as clients.
According to the survey, such people come from as far as away as Congo, Kenya and Burundi to hire vehicles from Tanzania, the vehicles are then driven across the border and in no time are sold to unsuspecting buyers.
While most of the vehicles are taken to neighbouring countries, some are sold within Tanzania but in a distant place from where it was stolen.
For instance, a vehicle hired in Dar es Salaam will be sold in Mwanza. “To make real money, you want something that’s been all tricked out. You can just take it apart yourself and make money selling the parts on the streets. I stole cars with rims, stereo systems and body kits,” said Abdallah.
Carjacking is another major headache that keeps car owners ever worried whenever they are on the road. Thieves have mastered ways of carjacking by luring unsuspecting motorists into their trap.
While some may pose as stranded motorists by the roadside and wave you down for help, most will steal your rear number plates while your vehicle is parked.
They will then trail you the moment you leave (oblivious of the fact that your rear number plate is missing) and later on flash the plate to you as they drive past you.It is obvious that you will stop, thinking that you have dropped your rear number plate and that they are good Samaritans who cared to alert you.
When you stop that is when they will strike, and in a twinkling of an eye your car will be gone. Motorcycle taxi riders (bodaboda) suffer most from thieves who pose as clients, only to turn out armed in the middle of the journey.
A big percentage of stolen motorcycles will also be driven and sold across the border or stripped into parts, with some being stripped just within Tanzania, while others will simply be used by the thieves themselves to run their thieving errands for the night and later dump them somewhere.
A lot of gangs take stolen cars to crooked used car dealers, who will proceed to file off the engine and chassis serial numbers, stamp their own numbers, then sell and register the car. Leonard Mwakalebela, a Senior Public Relations Officer with STAMICO, had his new car stolen recently at night.
Although it was installed with a sophisticated alarm system, neither he nor his family members ever heard anything. He said as he woke up in the morning and was ready to leave for the office, he found the car missing. “I did not believe it, and it took me a while for the fact to sink in that the car was indeed gone.
I was later told that thieves nowadays use a magnet to disable the alarm before leaving with it. A city car dealer, Hashim Uzuga, told our reporter that the thieves usually have prior information about the location of the alarm system, and by placing the magnet above it, it is automatically disabled.
Uzuga said in some cases mechanics and car washing boys sometimes collude with car thieves, and when you take your car for service or to be washed they duplicate the keys and alert the thieves, who can then track you down and the moment you park it they come and drive away with it.
He further said that buying a car from showrooms can pose a danger to the owner, because the people who work in the car yards duplicate the keys of most cars, and it becomes easy for car thieves to track it down because you leave most of your details in the course of buying the car.
“Having your car broken into or stolen is a distressing experience that can lead to emotional upset and financial implications.
If your car is stolen you will have the hassle of placing a claim with your insurance company, during which you will be seriously inconvenienced until it is finally replaced,” said Alex Domaso, a car security expert in Dar es Salaam.
He said if you have had some belongings taken from your car, chances are you will feel violated, having lost something valuable or irreplaceable.
Domaso said if you leave your bag, stereo, CDs, wallet or mobile phone lying around in your car, then it is going to become a target for thieves. “Park your car under a street lamp or in a well lit open space if possible.
Thieves do not want to work under a spotlight and are more likely to go for a car that is parked in a shady spot,” he said.
Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI), Mr Issaya Mngulu, said on Friday that in a two-day operation conducted by the police force, in collaboration with International Police (Interpol), they were able to recover 18 stolen vehicles, out of which 11 vehicles had their engine numbers filed off while four of them, including three motorcycles, were discovered to have been stolen from foreign countries such as South Africa, Japan and Burundi.
Daily News.
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