{"id":653033,"date":"2022-12-24T12:54:24","date_gmt":"2022-12-24T10:54:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=653033"},"modified":"2022-12-24T12:54:24","modified_gmt":"2022-12-24T10:54:24","slug":"hijackers-target-toll-gates-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/653033\/hijackers-target-toll-gates-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Hijackers target toll gates in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Road agency Sanral says that it is increasing its security measures at toll gates in the country following a hijacking that took place this past week.<\/p>\n<p>A video clip of the incident has been circulating on social media platforms.<\/p>\n<p>Sanral condemned the criminal activity and said that it was working the South African Police Service to combat similar incidents taking place.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile we can reduce the motivation to commit crime by increasing our security measures at toll plazas, we cannot police someone\u2019s intention to commit a crime. We, therefore, appeal to road users to always be vigilant and aware of threats to their security in any location,\u201d said Sanral spokesperson, Vusi Mona.<\/p>\n<p>The agency noted that all toll plazas are under 24-hour security camera surveillance, and all information at its disposal will be shared with police to aid the investigation.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Hijacking at toll gates. Be careful \ud83d\udea8 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/JoeLLJB2G6\">pic.twitter.com\/JoeLLJB2G6<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Vehicle Trackers (@VehicleTrackerz) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/VehicleTrackerz\/status\/1606250658289422336?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 23, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Sanral&#8217;s camera network across the country has assisted police in their investigations and securing convictions of criminals on a number of occasions, and the agency will continue to work with law enforcement agencies to create safer spaces for all road users,&#8221; it said.<\/p>\n<p>The hijacking incident was a variant of the &#8216;boxing in&#8217; method, where criminals cut off paths of escape for their victims. Similar methods are used when hijackings take place on a victim&#8217;s driveway, and also more recently at drive-thrus at fast food restaurants.<\/p>\n<p>Toll lanes are particularly suitable for this method as the target vehicle would be funneled into a narrow lane and blocked off by vehicles behind it, as well as the hijackers&#8217; vehicle ahead.<\/p>\n<p>South Africa has seen a massive jump in hijacking activity this year, with SAPS data showing 17,412 cases between January and September 2022 alone.<\/p>\n<p>The SAPS also highlighted a disturbing new trend in hijacking cases, with a growing number of incidents now also involving kidnappings as part of the crime.<\/p>\n<p>According to the SAPS, in the sample of 3,648 kidnapping cases it analysed, hijacking-related incidents accounted for the biggest number of cases where these took place.<\/p>\n<p>The data revealed that victims are twice as likely to be kidnapped in a hijacking than in the second most common situation (robbery).<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/645547\/big-jump-in-hijackings-in-south-africa-these-are-the-hotspot-areas-and-the-worrying-new-trend-to-look-out-for\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Big jump in hijackings in South Africa \u2013 these are the hotspot areas and the worrying new trend to look out for<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sanral says security at toll gates will be beefed up following a hijacking incident.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":645563,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9876],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-653033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=653033"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653033\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":653035,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653033\/revisions\/653035"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/645563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}