An Irish friend just back from South Africa has given us graphic details of what it's like being a motorist there. He was based in Johannesburg where car crime is rife: Cape Town, much favoured by Irish tourists, is less affected although security has to be kept in mind.
Our friend tells us that everything from pitbulls on the back seat to flame-throwers are the norm in Johannesburg as motorists arm themselves with ever-more desperate defence. The armoury also includes satellite tracking systems, immoblisers, panic alarms and bulletproof windows. Keeping a vehicle permanently unwashed is prudent: it's also prudent not to stop at red lights.
The most elaborate anti-carjacking kit, he says, is the Blaster. Costing about €800, it throws a six-foot high fireball at a would-be thief without damaging the paintwork. The Blaster squirts liquified petroleum gas (LPG) from two nozzles beneath the front doors, fed by gas bottles in the boot. Triggered by a pedal at the driver's feet, the wall of flame gives motorists enough time to escape.
Two years ago, at a Johannesburg crossroads, a carjacker brandishing a child's gun was burned to death by a home-made flame-thrower. Drivers who injure or kill attackers must be able to show that they were justified in using such force.
The Blaster is sold legally in South Africa and its inventor, Charles Fouri, denies it can kill. "This is definitely not lethal," he says. "A person is not going to stand there for a minute while you roast him alive. But it could certainly blind him and scar him for life, for sure."
South Africa's car crime epidemi shows no signs of abating. Fourie told our Irish friend that demand for the Blaster was "huge". It's marketed with options like a pepper spray version.
More commonplace deterrents include firearms, guard dogs on the back seat (particularly popular with convertible drivers) and stickers warning of curses in up to 11 languages.
One police officer, Richard Brussow, runs a flourishing business giving anti-carjacking courses. "Parked cars have never been harder to steal," he say, " which means thieves have to take them while we are driving them." That's the same situation in Ireland and most other European countries with new or newer models: anti-immobiliser systems seem still to be profoundly effective.
Brussow, however, discourages firearms, pepper spray and flame-throwing devices because he thinks they make the carjackers more desperate. "We will get to a point where thieves know that they are no longer safe to go up to a car and threaten the driver. So, instead of giving you the option of surrendering the vehicle, they will just shoot you first."
Carjacking has been hitting the headlines much closer to home, across the water in London. In January, estate agent Tim Robinson was stabbed to death when he resisted handing over his car in Battersea. Two weeks later, another London resident, Gloria Hamilton, was beaten unconsicous when carjackers rammed into the back of her 4x4 M-Class Mercedes-Benz. The jeep-like vehicle was almost new and she had bought it because she wanted to "feel safer in town".