Woman tells of hijack hell

KIDNAPPED: ‘I WAS TERRIFIED’ AS 3 MEN GET PIN NUMBERS, HOME DETAILS → Extraction of data now necessary to get cash, expert warns.

- Hein Kaiser

23-year-old woman and her friend were hijacked and kidnapped from her Sydenham, Johannesburg driveway last week, and lived to tell the tale.

The pair were the latest victims of a disturbing trend in contact crime. In express kidnappings, victims are forced into vehicles, driven around for a period while criminals raid their personal information, including banking details, PIN numbers and passwords.

Security expert Gerrit van Heerden of Community Monitoring Services said this kind of crime is on the increase, primarily due to technological advances.

“Nobody can steal cash anymore, life is digital, which means that contact crime now requires extraction of information, not just a rob and go with possessions and cash,” he said.

“While technology has made our lives easier, it’s also added a measure of danger when it comes to crime.”

Kira Scopp was sitting in her friend’s car outside her house. “It all happened so fast,” she said. They had been talking for about 30 minutes when a small, yellow, branded e-hailing vehicle parked behind them.