Africa-Press – Uganda. Thieves targeting car registration plates have hit the city and its suburbs again, leaving car owners distressed.
The thieves pluck off people’s number plates with the intention of extorting money from them after leaving behind their telephone contacts.
Information gathered by this newspaper shows that they have also changed tactics. Unlike in the previous incidences where they targeted public parking spaces, weddings, churches and other public gatherings, they now blatantly jump over perimeter walls in the dead of the night to access cars and make off with the number plates.
Surprisingly, they jump over perimeter walls that are manned by security guards. Police suspect connivance between criminals and security guards.
After plucking off the number plates, the thieves leave behind their telephone numbers demanding mobile money before directing the car owners to the location where the car registration plates are hidden, which is usually nearby.
The thugs operate as a syndicate and have accomplices in the neighbourhoods they strike, who negotiate payments.
Daily Monitor has learnt that the latest incident happened last Saturday night in Kitala-Kanyanya, Kawempe Division, where at least 14 number plates were stolen from cars parked in different residential houses.
According to a note they left behind, victims were asked to send Shs70,000 each to an Airtel mobile number. They also threatened to destroy the car plates if the victims did not send the money within two working days.
Although police cautions victims in such incidences against sending money to culprits, at least 13 desperate victims in the Saturday incident paid Shs70,000 each. Ms Josephine Namakumbi, a journalist, is one of the victims.
She said although she reported the matter to a nearby police station, she did not get help but was only told to give the investigators time to track the suspects.However, out of desperation, she ended up sending the money to the thieves through an Airtel money agent.
“From our phone talk, I easily discovered that those thieves know us very well and are residents in our neighbourhood because he kept on directing me to where my car registration plate was,” narrated Ms Namakumbi.
“He was hiding around the place and was monitoring what I was doing. When I finally got it, he immediately hung up on me,” she added.Another victim, who also paid Shs70,000 but declined to be named, expressed dissatisfaction with police over the matter.
“Besides, the thugs stay within and their mobile numbers are always on. So why can’t police officers start tracking the numbers instantly to arrest them? This is why most victims chose to pay that money because they don’t want to be frustrated by police investigations,” he said.
Kampala Metropolitan Police deputy spokesperson Luke Owoyesigyire acknowledged that the theft of car registration numbers remains a big challenge, but noted that police are doing their best to arrest all those involved in the act.He faulted victims for cooperating with the thieves, something he said encourages the latter to continue stealing.
“Just last week, we recovered about 20 car registration plates in Ntinda and we have recovered several others from different places across the city. We register very few cases but we make many recoveries during our operations. This means that the victims don’t bother to report to police and proceed to get new plates,” he said.Mr Owoyesigyire advised car owners to install alarms in their vehicles so that they can be alerted in case someone is tampering with them.
Asked about complaints that investigations into theft of car registration plates take long, he said the exercise involves tracking mobile phones given by the thieves whom he said switch off the numbers after some time hence frustrating the entire exercise.
