Catalan Police Deploy Stealth Units to Thwart Highway ’Flat Tire’ Scam Targeting Tourists

A scam is currently on the rise on the AP-7 motorway crossing Catalonia. It is the "flat tire" scam. The process is as follows: on board a car, the perpetrators of the scam spot a target: vacationers. They lure the victims towards the back of their car. They claim that a tire is flat. While they are at the back, an individual uses subterfuge to steal from the vacationers.

A Polish couple almost fell victim to it. "We are going to Barcelona for vacation. We were overtaken by this Mercedes. He told us to stop because there was a noise on the rear wheel," says the driver of the car. His wife adds: "We both got out of the car. There was a problem. I realized that something was wrong. And then the police arrived. I shouted at my husband to get back in the car. This kind of thing doesn’t happen on the highway."

A man in a white shirt lured the couple towards the back of his car. In the process, an accomplice was about to steal the wallet - containing 1,000 euros in cash - left in plain sight on the dashboard. They had suspected nothing. "This Polish couple on vacation was lucky," comments the police officer.

The Catalan Police are determined to fight this scourge. In this sense, it has created specialized units on the motorway, which act in plain clothes with unmarked cars and are familiar with the methods of these thieves, according to franceinfo. "Experience is important but it is also observation that allows anticipating to prevent old behaviors that lead to offenses," explains Corporal Laura, a member of the Mossos d’Esquadra’s operational mobility unit. This scam is punishable by a sentence of 3 months to 6 years in prison.