Morocco’s insurance companies have issued a list of the four most popular methods for car thieves - essential reading.
There are no statistics available for car theft in Morocco, let alone for the number of tourists whose cars are stolen. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the risk is very small.
Still, if you want to know what to look out for, today’s L’Economiste newspaper describes the four most common schemes used by car thieves.
The list was made public by the insurance companies in Morocco. Here’s their advice:
- never get out of your car without taking the keys and locking all doors
- when thieves threaten to use violence, let them have the car
- call the police even if the thieves abandon your car, they may have left drugs or stolen property inside that could get you into trouble later
- make copies of all your car documents and leave them at your hotel, along with the spare keys, as you will need them when you report a car theft
And here are the latest creative ways to steal a car in Morocco.
The Rear Window
You get in your car and you’re ready to go. Like any good driver, you look over your shoulders before you leave. That’s when you spot the large piece of paper or cardboard on your rear window.
Your first impulse is to get out of your car to remove the paper. It will take just a second, so you leave the car keys in the ignition, your bag inside and the door open.
When you are behind the car, the thief moves in, getting behind the wheel and taking off with your car.
The Fake Accident
As you drive along the road, one moped drives in front of you, another one behind you. Both have two people on them. Suddenly, the one in front breaks and slides. As you hit the breaks too, the passenger on the back seat of the moped disappears under your bumper.
Horrified, you realize you may have hit him. You dash out of the car to see if he’s alright. By the time you reach him, he’s already up again, back on the moped and off to nowhere.
The passenger from the moped behind you, meanwhile, has run over to your car. He finds the door open, the key in the ignition, your valuables still inside. And off he goes.
The Invisibility Cloak
You return to your car, only to find that it’s gone. It’s nowhere to be seen. After a few minutes you resign to the bad news and head for the police station.
Having spent hours to file the police report, you return to your hotel room and phone the insurance company back home.
Meanwhile, back in the street where you last saw your car, thieves are thanking you for allowing them all the time in the world to take your car away. While you are sweating in a police station, they remove the car cover they had draped over your vehicle and get ready to move.
The Tow Truck
Not necessarily a trick that is used on tourists, because the thieves need to know how long a car will stay on the street unattended. It is used mostly outside offices.
The thieves arrive wit a tow truck and casually load a car on it. The scene doesn’t cause any attention. How unusual is it to see a car being towed away?
According to L’Economiste, the tow truck scheme is very popular with Toyota Corollas, and it has only been reported in Rabat so far.
Apparently, most cars in Morocco are stolen as a source of spare parts.