C H A P T E R S E V E N
had stopped at a service station some minutes earlier and followed his Citroen in a Ford Transit. He thought he remembered seeing a similar van parked nearby at the service station. Shortly after he stopped the van pulled up and two men got out - one punched him in the face knocking him down then knelt on his chest drawing a knife several times across his face. In minutes the gang were speeding away with the antiques towards Birmingham in the van, with the plates obscured. In a separate incident a gang were equally as quick in Gwent Wales when they attacked a Mrs Williams 57, as she collected her company’s payroll. She had become suspicious of a white Citroen following her. Suddenly it overtook her and a Ford Capri took it’s place. The Citroen screeched to a halt forcing her to brake hard, the Capri ramming into her from the back. Although traffic built up on both sides of the road, unsurprisingly, no one came to help until the end of the attack. Three men wearing light blue ski masks and armed with a crowbar and truncheon then approached her. She described how three men jumped out, one stood in front of her car, one by the passenger door window and a third by the drivers window. “The third man kept
smashing a bar against my window, but it wouldn’t break. I opened my window about 2-3 inches and passed the money through the gap, then they were gone.” The gang fled in the Citroen and left the ford at the scene. Mrs Williams described herself as a ‘marked woman’. Earlier in the week a Mr Dennis McMahon was robbed of £8,000 in wages when he was attacked in his car by a gang near his home in Middlesborough.
With both the wages robberies, there was an element of planning and the gangs would have known that payrolls were being carried. There have been incidents, though of lone females in expensive cars where a ‘fake’ accident has been staged and the victims robbed of cash and jewels. to make these robberies work the thieves need information, particularly for the wages snatch. They may be getting that information from your business!
Information Security
There is a golden rule about information security and that is that if the information is important and you think it is secret then you must also still believe in the tooth fairy. Someone, somewhere will have told others about your payroll run, even if in all innocence. You must plan your travel on these occasions on the basis that
M O B I L E S E C U R I T Y
the information is likely to be known to others and then vary times and routes so as to prevent a pattern emerging. It is grossly unsafe and highly questionable to send any member of staff on a wages run where large amounts of cash are involved. It is done in the belief, incorrect in many cases, that they are being covert and that nobody knows how it is done.
Road Rage
It has become a feature of the increas- ing stress and pressures of driving on UK roads that we have now begun to accept ‘road rage’ as a common occurrence. On any day it would be hard not to see one example of the phenomenom as two drivers exchange aggressive gestures and silent invective. On occasions, both they and their aggression spills out onto the road and violence can ensue - even to the extent of men physically attacking women.
What concerns more than this aspect of a more fundamental underlying problem is that there are untold numbers of people who are on a ‘knife edge’ and are basically, walking time bombs. They have reached a point of stress and frustration, so much so, that an overload occurs to the mental ‘governor’ which would normally keep a cap on such explosive behaviour.
The ‘knifewoman’ who was described as ‘going berserk’ in the Jobcentre is such an example. Even ‘normal’ people can be taken to the point of becoming unhinged.
The point I want to make is that you should avoid being the ‘catalyst’ which tips these otherwise ‘normal’ people over the edge. They are on a very, very, short fuse and if it is you who tips them over, it will be you who is on the receiving end of what seems a gross over-reaction to your particular problem with them. This can happen in the car, a queue, whilst at work either with colleagues, or more likely, with a customer- if you are in a ‘service’ type business. We will look at the
‘Recognition and Resolution of Conflict’ in the work environment in
Chapter 8.
I just wanted to make the point that you do not know who you are ‘waving your fist’ at and the mental state of that individual. Remember there is only High Risk or Unknown Risk - there is no middle ground when you don’t know someone and don’t be fooled by appearances. The film ‘Falling Down’ starring Michael Douglas gave a very good portrayal of the ‘Mr Average’ who reached the end of his rational tolerance - so don’t be the trigger which fires these people in your direction.
M O B I L E S E C U R I T Y
That having been said we can now concentrate on the wider risks of travel. This is not a book about safe driving, but if we do not touch on this then we are ignoring the most fundamental contributor to personal injury and death - road accidents. Before we look at some driving issues in relation to our security from attack, assault, robbery, we need to see how we drive. The better we drive, the better we should be able to avoid violent incidents, however the remote the possibility may be.