Car theft in Karachi is on an entirely different scale as and when compared to other cities of Pakistan.
It is the biggest city of Pakistan: both by population and area. By population, it is already touching its highest – roughly 15 million people and by area, it is 3,780 square kilometers.
Managing such a big city with such little resources is already a nightmare.
But when it comes to crimes in Karachi we get to know that apart from abduction, ransom, and murder, the most common crimes in Karachi are mobile snatching and car theft.
In only January 2019, over 2000 cars and bikes were stolen from Karachi. This number is confirmed by the Citizen Police Liaison Committee; however, they believe that in terms of car lifting, so far 2019 is much better than in 2018.
A “Mehran Group” of car lifters in Karachi were caught twice by the police and the members of the gang gave a demo to the police about how car lifting is done: especially in case of Mehran cars which are so easy to steal and so easy to sell.
Car Security Challenges in Karachi
In this section not only we will discuss the tactics of “Mehran Group”, but also talk about other car security challenges in Karachi:
- Car Snatching in Karachi – Since many political parties in Karachi are known for having gangster outfits, Karachi is more of a robber’s paradise than that of a thief. Just like mobile snatching, car snatching has also been a practice in Karachi.
- Car Lifting – Apart from car snatching, car lifting has also been a very well-known crime. In the outskirts of Karachi as well as in busy areas, a car lifting gang’s newly hired member gets a hang of car lifting. A member of “Mehran Group” showed to the media as to how a car is stolen and taken away within less than a minute.
This gang does this is in a duration lesser than that in the famous Hollywood flick “Gone in 60 Seconds”; gang members do this within 40 seconds. Here is how:
- Insert a thin metal scale in the window, open the lock and enter the car.
- Remember it is a Mehran without any car alarm because you can always tell whether a car is wired or not.
- Upon entering you face a conventional steering wheel lock; press the steering wheel down with your feet, until it flexes enough to give you enough room to remove the lock.
- Hot-wire the car with a wire with complete circuit and switch. Just connect your wire to the wire that is connected to the starter and press the switch. You hear the rev of the stolen car’s engine; all you have to do is get away with it.
How Car Tracking Can Help?
Remember:
Karachi is different from Lahore in the way a car owner loses his car. In Karachi, car snatching is a threat almost equal to car lifting.
Here is how car tracking can help in both cases:
- Most of the Karachi cars are stolen and taken to Baluchistan’s remote areas. You cannot do anything about this in case your car is loaded on a truck. However, a small GSM tracking device e.g. a cellphone can be used to track the car and stop it on its way.
- Depending on gang resources, it is possible that a thief will drive the car to an area outside the city. To stop such a thief, a car tracking device with engine jamming kit may prove to be very helpful.
- In almost all cases you will end up require police’s help. It is better if you have a car tracking system so you can track the map and see where your car is or to which direction it is being taken away.