Your car is one of the most targeted assets in South Africa — not just for theft, but as the setting for hijackings, smash-and-grabs, and being followed home. None of this is inevitable. A handful of habits, practised consistently, close off most of the easy opportunities.
Vary your routine
Criminals casing a target look for patterns — the same route, the same time, the same stop at the same robot every morning. Varying your route to work, the school run, or the shops, even slightly and irregularly, removes the predictability that planning depends on.
If you think you're being followed, don't go home
This is one of the most consistently repeated pieces of advice from South African security professionals, and for good reason: many hijackings happen in a victim's own driveway, in the seconds it takes to open a gate. If a vehicle has been behind you for several turns you didn't expect it to make, drive to the nearest police station or a busy, well-lit public place — not home.
Keep valuables out of sight
Smash-and-grabs at robots and in traffic happen in seconds, and they're crimes of opportunity — a visible phone, bag, or laptop on the passenger seat is often the entire reason a window gets broken. Keep valuables in the boot, ideally before you start driving rather than after you've already stopped somewhere visible.
Worth knowing: vehicle-related crime remains one of the most common contact crimes in South Africa, and a meaningful share of hijackings happen close to home — right in the driveway, when a driver's guard is already down after a long day.
If something does go wrong
If you're followed, threatened, or a hijacking is underway, cooperation with a demand for the vehicle itself is generally safer than resistance — vehicles are replaceable. Where a silent alert matters is in getting your location to people who can act, without escalating the situation by making noise. That's the specific gap findME's silent SOS is built to close: a 5-second volume-button hold sends your live location to your safety circle without a sound, a vibration, or anything visible on the screen.