As many of you will be arriving for your summer holidays over the coming days and weeks, we would like to bring to your attention a scam that is being carried out in the area with the aim of distracting you whilst someone steals personal items such as handbags from your car.

When leaving a car park, if anyone tries to stop or block you in and then asks for directions or tries to help guide you out from your car park space at a distance far enough away from your car that you need to leave your vehicle in order to talk to them, please make sure you close the doors and windows and lock the car before leaving your vehicle, if you do in fact decide to leave your car and help.  This scam involves using distraction tactics to get people out of their vehicles whilst leaving them unlocked, so that someone else can steal personal items such as handbags.

Sotogrande provides an environment that makes it very easy to relax and let your guard down, however some people do try to take advantage of this.

So please remember to apply all normal personal safety and security routines here that you would at home, such as closing and locking all doors and windows and put on your alarm before leaving your property, never leave anything in sight or unattended in vehicles and always secure and lock your car, even if you are just leaving it for a few seconds/minutes.

We hope that this advice is completely unnecessary, but it is best to be aware in order for you to prepare/adjust your holiday routines as necessary.

Wishing you all “happy holidays”