BEWARE CAR JACKING AROUND BARCELONA AUGUST 2010

PLEASE READ THIS.... IT MAY HELP YOU AVOID BEING A VICTIM OF CRIME. SINCE POSTING THIS EVENT. I HAVE LEARNED THAT A NUMBER OF PEOPLE HAVE BEEN CAR JACKED AND LOST  100S OF POUNDS - PASSPORTS ETC..IF ONLY THEY WOULD HAVE WARNED EVERYONE IT COULD HAVE PREVENTED ANOTHER VICTIM..

THAT IS WHY I WANT TO LET EVERYONE KNOW..SO THEY CAN BE PREPARED.

We have recently drove from the uk to Murcia in Spain and thought i should warn people of the risk and how the Car Jackers Work, especially after an attempted and failed Car jacking on myself and family recently in August this year.

We was on our way to Murcia and we got onto the motorway around Barcelona. When i noticed a mercedes bens colour gold/bronze 2009 saloon type model was behind us. It then indicated to go past when we heard a bang under the car, the mercedes then pulled along side and a male in the front passanger seat was  waving a yellow jacket and telling us to pull over, he was shouting the word ball and pointing under the car. i thought it was odd  and my wife said pullover. We pulled over and one of the males from the mercedes a bolivian looking carcasion was pointing under my passenger side my Wife opened her door and the male was asking for me to look under, so i turned the car engine off and got out. I left my door open and walked round to  the side. 

The carjacker tried to get me to bend down and look under the car, when i noticed he had something hidden behind the cover of a high vis jacket in his right hand. I also noticed another male slide out from the rear of the merc rear seat and run to the driver side. I shouted to my wife car jacking, shut her door and ran round to face the other car jacker who stopped at my door in shock, I then knocked him out of the way got into my car and shut the doors. To my suprise the Car jackers both bolivian looking ran off to there merc, which then sped off. 

The motor way was very busy and the incident happened around 2pm.

In hindsight, i should have acted on my experiences and not pulled over. I should have also not got out of the car or allowed any door to be open. I should have just carried on driving and at least dialled 112. After the event we reported the crime to the police.

We had a very lucky escape and i would just like everyone to be aware of this nasty type of crime which seems to be quite common around this area and by posting this warning, i hope it makes everyone more vigilant.  

The males where aged 25-30 around 5.4 in height.

** EDITED - Please respect terms of posting **

 I dont know if the last person was making a joke of this.

We had exactly the same happen in August.

We had two teenagers in the back of the car who were screaming. A second person grabbed my handbag but didn't manage to get it. They too ran off in the end.

It made no difference to the people that there were teenagers in the car, again the attack happened around Barcelona. 

Unfortunately, this has become rather common.  The worst stretch is from Valencia to the other side of Barcelona.  This also happened to friends, they stopped at a motorway cafe for a quick break and when they came out somebody had deflated one of the tyres.  While they were attending to this, and totally distracted, two South American looking men jumped out of a nearby car and grabbed  a handbag and jacket from the backseat, and then sped off before they had time to react.  The police were very sympathetic but did not have much hope of recovering money, credit cards etc in bag.

Another friend actually lost her car!  Driving in Barcelona - and this is somebody who has lived here a long time - and was flagged by a motorist driving by the side to indicate something wrong with the wheel.  Feeling suspicious, she did not stop until that car had passed and then stopped to have a quick look.  Another car screeched to a stop by her and a male jumped out and dived into her car and drove off.  She had left her keys in the ignition for a second while she got out to quickly check the wheel.  Obviously, the other car was working in tandem with the original and had been following her.

All sorts of problems with the insurance afterwards, because if your keys are left inside it´s not classed as straightforward theft!  They usually target the higher end of the car market for this scam.

Last but not least, don´t leave your dog unattended in the car.   Dog thefts in and around Barcelona are very high.  The b........ds steal them for dogfighting.  If big enough they will be used for sparring practice, if little just to be thrown to the dogs to be torn apart to make the fighting dogs even more savage.  A while back around Barcelona it got so bad that dogs were being kidnapped while being exercised off the lead. There was a campaign in the local papers to make people aware of how large the problem had become.   Large sums of money changes hands in these barbaric dogfights, so don´t think your car windows won´t be broken to steal the dog.

Scary stuff!  We have heard this quite a few times now so I hope the more we keep this in the open the more people become aware that this is going on.

Justin

Friends of ours driving from Alicante Airport were car-jacked in the same way. They pulled over because they were signalled by another car driver + passenger that there was a problem with their (hire) car. Of course there was nothing wrong with it! But  the wife realised as soon as they set off again that her bag was missing.  Not a good start to a much needed break  as the husband had been recently diagnosed with bowel cancer. 

It is a tried and tested scam by insidious individuals.