Women on alert after carjackings

Women have been warned to take extra care after a rise in crimes targeting female drivers, including a recent carjacking in Shanghai, in which robbers attacked a woman as she left a supermarket.

The woman, 42, surnamed Sun, was carjacked by three men in a parking lot near the city’s Gaoqing Road and forcibly detained in her black Mercedes for hours on Monday.

The men forced Sun at knife point to hand over her bank cards and tell them the pin numbers.

“One man seized my throat while another held a knife pointed at me,” she said. “I told them I have two kids that were waiting for me. But they told me to shut up and listen, otherwise I might never get home.”

The men also forced Sun to take sleeping pills, before driving about 20 kilometers and abandoning the vehicle in Changning district with her still inside.

Three suspects, 24- yearold Li from Henan province, 37-year-old Sha from Anhui province and 24- year- old Su from Chongqing, were detained on Wednesday in Kunshan, a city in nearby Jiangsu province.

They told police they knew each other through the Internet and decided to conduct a robbery because they were short of money.

Nationwide, there have been several recent reports of robberies and other crimes targeting motor vehicles driven by women.

According to Shanghai TV, Sun, a mother of two, was preparing to drive home after shopping in Pudong New Area at about 7 pm on Monday, when the three men got into her car.

“I saw a man following me and I took notice. But he was faster than me and it was too late to shut the door,” she was quoted as saying.

The other two men dragged her into the back seat before they drove away.

The trio forced her to swallow the sleeping pills.

“They said if I didn’t take them, they would give me injections,” she said.

Sun became sleepy after swallowing the pills. When she woke, she found she was in her car in a secluded part of Changning district.

Sun said her cellphone was also taken, so she struggled to drive home, arriving around 3 am on Tuesday, and immediately called the police.

The robbery has put many female drivers on alert.

Wang Bei, a marketing specialist, said, “I will try to park my car near the center of a parking lot and avoid using remote areas. Women are more likely to be targeted than men.”

Chen Wenjuan, who works in a foreign trade business and has been driving for six years, said she will take special care as the New Year and Spring Festival draw near.

“For the most part, Shanghai is still a very safe city but it is necessary to always be aware of protecting yourself,” she said.