There have been a lot of car jackings recently in and around our area (Glasgow).  The latest one I heard of from a reliable source was of a guy in Edinburgh who was parked at traffic lights in his new BMW in the city centre.  Some youths walked round his car and one of them threw something at the back of his car (he thinks it was a can).  He wisely decided not to get out and locked the doors.  The lights changed and he moved on to the next set of lights.  The youths chased him and continued to throw things at his car.  He travelled a short distance further and pulled over at a bus stop to see what damage had been done.  When he got out his car and walked to the back, someone pulled him to the ground and started kicking him in the face.  Fortunately a police car happened to come round the corner at that point.  I'm not sure whether his assailant escaped or not.  The man has spent many days in hospital and has a broken jaw.  So please be careful, keep your doors locked and don't get out your car if you're involved in an incident.

I have had 2 incidents recently, which although innocent, could have been much more sinister. On the first occassion I was pulling out of my car parking space at the supermarket, when a woman opened my passenger door, picked my handbag off the seat and sat down !! She had mistaken my car for her friends car, and am not sure who had the biggest shock. The second incident happened when I was dropping someone off at the airport, only this time a young man jumped in by mistake.......he soon legged it :D :D  So KEEP YOUR DOORS LOCKED!!

We had a letter from the police warning us to be extra vigilant when driving and also with our car keys as the latest thing is for the reprobates to break into your house to get the car keys in order to steal the car - hubby went out and bought a safe for them!  Which is great but now he moans when I forget to put mine in there.. :)

-Kay

A relative of ours had burglars who only took his car keys and then of course his car.  If they could find mine that easily they would deserve a medal let alone a car as I can never find the darned things when I want them.  Seriously though most people keep their keys in the hallway and that is so convenient for burglars.

I had an incident a few years ago where a battered car with 3 or 4 lads in it appeared to follow me off of the motorway. I went past my turn and did a u turn round a roundabout and they followed me. I drove to the only place I could think of - the local garage, they drove in to the garage and I honestly thought I had had it. Fortunately they realised they were on cameras and thought better of it. It definately pays to think about what you would do in a similar situation even if you hope it will never happen.

Also NEVER leave your hand bag/brief casae on the front seat whilst driving. THere have been a lot of cases (excuse the pun) of people siting in traffic having their window broken and the bag snatched. I either wind the handle round the gear shift, put it under the front seat or in the boot.    

I have thought of this one before as my friend who was heavily pregnant and had a baby inthe car as well was followed by a car.  She drove all the way home and they parked across her drive and got out.  Turned out to be unmarked police car, she had done something at a roundabout she shouldn't have done, something really minor but considering she had just driven 20 miles from a hospital, detoured to drop off her sister after rushing to see her mum who had just had heart attack it was no wonder she was not concentrating 100%.  Made me think that in the same situation I would drive to a police station but then you never know how you would really act unless put in the situaiton.

I did think about a police station but had two issues with that: 1 there often arent any police at them, not round here anyway! 2. How would I attract attention without having to get out of the car, since most police stations have no external windows these days and Im not a fast runner to leg it in there :0 

That's true, our police is unmanned after a certain time which is mindboggling as there is always plenty of trouble at the weekends.

The other thing you could do in a situation like this is to draw as much attention to yourself as possible.  Drive around and around a residential area with main beam lights and fog lights on with hand permanently held on the hooter.  That should bring the police to you :D  Cor, I really like that idea, don't know why I've not thought of it before :D :D

I had someone follow me once, so I did drive to the Police Station as oppose to going home. They left pretty sharply when they saw where I had driven to :rolleyes: Where I used to live, the police station was very close to the town centre and was manned at all times thankfully.

Car-jacking is very common where I live and has been for years.

My boss in my last job had a parking space in a locked car park near our office. She had a set routine and always collected her car from the car park at 6.15pm every evening. One February evening she drove out of the car park and got out of the car again to lock the gate. Mindful of safety, she removed the keys from the ignition. She was jumped by a couple of scumbags who broke her wrist to get the keys from her :(

Someone else I know almost d his car stolen with his kids in it He was taking them to a drama class on a Saturday morning and stopped to pick another child up. He didn't realise that he had been followed from the main road and whilst he knocked on the door, someone jumped in his car and tried to steal it. They didn't realise it was an automatic and didn't know how to drive it so, luckily, they jumped out and ran off.

Burglaries where only car keys are stolen are so commonplace here that they have a name - 'creeper' burglaries. However, all too often, violence will be used to get someone to hand over the keys if the thief cannot easily find them. I know of one gentleman who was left severely brain damaged after being attacked with a hammer because he disturbed someone trying to steal his car keys :(

You really cannot be too careful these days.