2024-08-05 22:12:26
Los fake mechanics from the colony Roma They set up a whole scene around the supposed failure of a vehicle and, after pretending that they fixed it, four or five subjects surround the driver and demand payment of up to 75 thousand pesos.
“If you don’t bring the money we can go to your house, or if you bring a card we will go to an ATM,” they press to obtain the money from the “job” y “new parts”.
As a play
In the midst of the 2:00 p.m. traffic jam, Axis 3 WestBefore crossing Insurgentes, a woman signals to a driver traveling alone: “Your tire is going to come off…” she lets out a barely audible scream. He answers with a thank you, without lowering the window..
At a slow pace, she advances half a block, another woman points at the tire and walks up to the window with the same warning: “Your tire is moving, it’s going to come off.”
Once the vehicle was parked, a third individual in mechanic’s overalls approached with the same warning and offered to help in the nearby workshop, where he claims to work, with the warning that he cannot bring the car in because it is only for members, so the work will be done on a street, one block away. One by one, more individuals appear who claim to help, until the time comes to apply pressure to collect payment.
To ensure that the driver does not notice whether or not parts have been replaced, they keep the driver in the car with his foot on the brake and his hands on the steering wheel, supposedly to avoid injuring the mechanic while he is working on fixing the steering system.
They probably operate elsewhere, but one victim has seen them twice, once on Eje 3 and its junction with Medellín, and another about Monterrey, before passing Insurgentes.
There are various forms of deception and extortion, “combined with confusion in the victims when someone hits them or tells them that there is something wrong with their tire,” he explained in an interview for 24 HOURS the president of the Citizen Council for Security and Justice (CCSJ), Salvador Guerrero Cyprus.
Indicates that it is a variable of the robbery known as montachoques. The main cases are tire scams, which lead victims to stop and engage in dialogue with these characters, who operate in groups of between five and eight people and carry out frauds in a period of between 60 and 90 minutes maximum.
Deceptions and abuses
From 2021 to date, security authorities have reported a total of 87 cases, highlighting that in 2024, there has been a considerable increase.
“I trusted people, they said they were helping me and so on,” was the testimony of a victim of fake mechanics, one of the methods used by these mafias.
Los montachoques y fake mechanics they choose to They identify their victims according to their profiles, with 68 percent being people between 46 and 60 years old; followed by 30 percent of those between 18 and 45 years old, who are studied by the type of vehicle and the way they drive. It is noteworthy that in Mexico City 30 percent of vehicles do not have insurance, so a mechanic who appears out of nowhere is well received.
In 45 percent of the cases, the amounts of the scams range up to 10 thousand pesos; in 37 percent, from 11 thousand to 25 thousand pesos; in 15 percent, from 26 thousand to 60 thousand pesos and in other cases, the Demanded figures are becoming higher.
According to the CCSJ, 96 percent of the cases registered in the Metropolitan Area are in Mexico City, with 70 percent concentrated in the Cuauhtémoc, Gustavo A. Madero, Benito Juárez, Xochimilco and Álvaro Obregón municipalities.
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2024-08-05 22:12:26