The resident of St Audley Road said on Twitter that on 31 July three armed suspects in an old BMW five series surprised her as she pulled into her premises. She alleged that they had held her at gunpoint and robbed her of valuables after stopping her gate from closing remotely, through the use of a jamming device or remote to block or imitate the gate’s signal.
Sandton police spokesperson Captain Kym Cloete said she was aware of the incident, but the complainant had made no mention of her concern that a jamming device had been used. She added that, as far as she was aware, this was not a tactic in use by criminals. She said the known modus operandi in follow-home robberies was for one or two suspects on foot to manually block the gate’s sensor to force it to open. She had never heard of a case in which a jamming device had been used to prevent a gate from closing.
Andries Malan, founder of Gate Motor Guru, a Johannesburg-based company specialising in gate motors, also voiced doubt. He said the cryptic frequencies used by gate remotes are incredibly difficult to duplicate. He said he was also aware of the tactic of covering a gate’s sensor but he had never heard of a jamming device being used.
