Police alert over increase in car-jacking

Date: 11/12/1997

By Rory Watson

AN UNPRECEDENTED outbreak of 'car-jacking' in some of Brussels' best-healed suburbs has prompted the Belgian police and EU authorities to urge foreign diplomats and European officials to take special precautions.

“The phenomenon is not new, but there has definitely been a sharp increase in the past two months. It is difficult to be exact about it, but there is a feeling several groups are doing this,” said a spokesman at the Brussels public prosecutor's office.

The hijackers' targets are invariably top-of-the-range executive cars which are immediately shipped out of the country. One favourite destination is Poland, where there is no obligation to prove ownership of vehicles imported into the country.

“Most of them tend to go to eastern Europe or the Middle East. The thieves are very well organised, armed and violent and use several methods. They take them from people's homes or in the street and most of the vehicles are probably already sold before they are taken,” explained one security expert.

The latest car-jack victim was Social Affairs Commissioner Pádraig Flynn, whose driver was forced at gunpoint to hand over his leased, dark green Mercedes 500S to an attacker shortly after dropping Flynn off at his home. Several other Commission cars have been stolen in similar circumstances in recent months.

Commission chauffeurs already receive special training in dealing with car-jacking attempts and the institution, while reluctant to take any measures which might overdramatise the situation, is considering whether to distribute precautionary advice to all its officials.

Meanwhile, the Belgian police are organising classes to alert people to the problem. “What we also want to do is to use the press to warn people not to resist, to get as far away from the scene as possible and not to fight over the car,” said a Belgian spokesman.