As guide and writer Angelina Zaleckaitė shares in her Facebook post, you need to be especially vigilant when traveling in certain places.
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“Highway robbers on Spanish highways (AP-7 highway). If you are traveling towards Barcelona, Girona, or heading towards Alicante on the famous AP-7 highway, be extremely cautious. Well-organized groups of highway robbers have been operating here for many years.
How does their scheme work? Another car catches up with you on the highway, its driver starts flashing lights, signaling, pointing at the back of your car, and gesturing: ‘You have a flat tire!’, ‘Something is smoking!’, ‘Stop, the wheel will fall off!’
Travelers get scared and stop on the roadside. The ‘good driver’ gets out, approaches you, very helpfully invites you to go to the back of the car and inspect the ‘problem’ together.
While you look at the wheel, his accomplice sneaks up to your car from the other side, opens the doors, and in a few seconds steals everything: handbags, wallets, phones, documents, and backpacks. A second later they jump into their car and disappear.
For a long time, society and the media talked about this as the ‘Romanian mafia.’ Although police investigations in France and Spain show that among these criminals there are indeed many Eastern European (including Romanian) citizens, today these are multinational organized groups, including criminals from North African countries, South America, and locals, who use stolen or rented cars with fake license plates.
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They mostly target travelers with rented cars (indicated by rental company stickers) or those with foreign license plates.
What to do if you are stopped?
1. DO NOT STOP on the highway, no matter what other drivers show you. Rental cars are new, the chance of a sudden flat tire is minimal. If the tire is really flat, you will feel it.
2. If you decide to stop – drive to the nearest gas station, rest area, or a place with video cameras and people.
3. If you still have to stop on the roadside: IMMEDIATELY lock the car from the inside, get out with the keys in your hand, and keep your documents and phone in your pocket.
Travel independently, enjoy Spain, but be vigilant and cautious on the road!” – shares guide A. Zaleckaitė in her post.
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