Thought I'd better post this for any women that are popping to the supermarket on their own

Today I witnessed myself something I have heard about from 2 different people over the last week or so (all around Sabinillas but these people may be operating in other areas on the CDS)

It is a team of 3. One drives, another approaches the car of a woman pulling into the supermarket car park on her own and asks directions. Meanwhile, the 3rd member of the gang opens the passenger door and steals whatever he can get his hands on (aiming for the handbag).

Fortunately on this occasion they had to contend with some nutter in a beaten up Ford Fiesta driving towards the 3rd member with his hand on the horn...alas he ran before my car could hit (probably in hindsight a far better outcome than if I had killed the bugger by mowing him down).

I would advise making sure your car doors are locked when you are driving around and especially when pulling into public car parks.

Another thing these people are looking for are people who park their cars and lock them as they walk away with a remote control. A lot of modern cars will not activate the central locking if it senses that a door is open. These thieves will attempt to open the passenger door in the time between the driver exiting and operating the remote in the hope they do not realise that the alarm does not activate so they can help themselves to the contents while the driver is off shopping. For this reason I would advise getting into the habit of activating the central locking while standing next to the car with a quick check to make sure it has actually worked.

Not only solo women. A married couple we know had this happen to them recently, not sure of the exact location, probably in the same area - maybe Estepona, Carrefour at Estepona is famous for it.

I am very wary in supermarket car parks - they often approach you to take your trolley back to the park so they can have the euro. I wave them away and if they don't go I start shouting and getting aggressive (I am quite big and ugly).

I don't know why the supermarkets don't tighten up their security - cost I suppose.

Did you get his number?

didn't see the driver..just assume he was somewhere close by. I don't mind scaring them off, I'll leave the chasing for those who are paid to do it

Good point to raise. People are often all too complacent about security.

You can usually set your car to automatically lock the doors when you start to drive. Also don't leave your handbag on the seat in full view...do not drive with the windows down. Common sense really.

Last time I was in Spain 3 weeks ago been there approx 2 hours drove from Malaga Airport to El Ingenio parked up had lunch returned to car to drop something off before going to get food shopping to find my daughters case missing. Very slight mark on passenger door lock where it had been forced back seat pulled forward and case taken, contained her bit of spending money 120 euro and her I phone. Sad thing is she is not well off and had had to save up from temorary job to get these. Put a blight on our break and shows they are watching you so take care, I know I will be more careful in future.

Another trick the thieving baskets frequently use and worthy of another mention, is to stick big flyers onto the back window of parked cars.

Car owner comes back to car approaching from the front, opens door sits in seat, puts key in ignition, maybe starts engine, checks mirror,sees flyer blocking rear view, gets out and goes round back to remove it, and wham bang, bag gone or car gone in the wink of an eye.

Like people who leave the keys in the ignition when they go and pay at the garage till.........

Thats just plain dumb.
I always lock the car doors before paying.

Another fairly well known scam is following the hire cars of newly arrived visitors from the airport when they are fully loaded and then causing a minor diversion.
I believe that one first began in the States,especially Miami many years ago.
The use of guns was fairly common and the visitors were easily picked off because the hire cars were clearly marked back then.

up until fairly recently cars registered in Jersey were marked with an 'H' also making them a target when travelling off island to France or UK.
some of the hire companies have stopped putting stickers on the rear window, partly because of MOT rules but also because of highlighting hire cars.

I've just come back from the weekly shop at Carrefour and other shops at Los Barrios (it was here BTW that the married couple I mentioned earlier were done over). I found myself quite automatically checking people out in the car park - making sure I felt safe, being very wary of people coming too close. Sad sign of the times I suppose...

Sounds like the Bull Ring or Notting Hill..........

I'm afraid that expats are easy targets for criminals in Spain. They are simply not used to the way the thieves operate here, nor the way police respond to their emergency, usually by telling the victims to attend the relevant police station with an interpreter.

There are many sites listing the numerous things to look out for and they are well worth reading.

The Doberman has just come in to nudge me, we both know why he's here. Before he arrived, we had seven burglaries in three years.

So, with the new head of security, it's less exciting? Glad to hear it.

I had a friend whose son's house was burgled by Gypsies. They climbed into the yard without realising security was handled by two Dobermans with a sense of humour, and a nice understanding of how long it takes a running man to cross ground when death is after him.

They simply waited in absolute silence till the Gypsies had crossed the imaginary line of no return, then gave the local surgeon an awful lot of work.

The police officers who came seemed to find it awfully amusing, and they all had treats for the dogs.