Urgent warning to Brits travelling to Tenerife - 'you need to be aware'

A TikTok user has issued an urgent warning to Brits travelling to Tenerife.

The TikToker, who goes by CarHireTenerife online, shared a video titled: ‘Be careful in Tenerife! This could happen to you and it’s not nice!’, in which he shared a stark warning with anyone travelling to the island.

He started the video by explaining that while it isn’t discussed very much in Tenerife, it is important to be aware of where you park your car.

He said: “Not only being careful in terms of being towed away or given a ticket, it is a protected national park, but also to do with this over here,” as he points to a pile of smashed glass by a car.

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“If you do rent a car - whoever it’s from - do not leave any valuables inside,” he adds.

“You can see all the glass on the floor here, that is from where someone has unfortunately smashed one of the car windows.”

CarHireTenerife then explains that Tenerife has ‘gangs over here’ that fly onto the island, hire a car, and drive around looking for vehicles to target.

He revealed that these gangs have ‘spotters’ who will approach you and say ‘let me take a picture of you’ and while you’re distracted having a photo taken, another member of the gang will be breaking into your car and taking any valuables left inside.

“Leave your cars empty, take your valuables with you. Even if you’re just popping over to get a picture, trust me take everything with you,” he suggests.

“Be very careful because they have spotters, they have people watching for you to leave stuff in your car, they have people to distract you taking pictures, and they will just smash the window and pop the door lock and you’ll lose your stuff.”

The good news though is that these gangs ‘never want the cars’ as they can’t remove them from the island, ‘they just want the stuff inside’. So, according to CarHireTenerife, as long as you leave cars empty, you shouldn’t have a problem.

He said: “Leave nothing in your cars, because if you do you’ll leave yourself liable for a smashed window.

“The car rental company will charge you for the window and you’ll also lose your stuff, and it’ll ruin a day of your holiday.”

People were quick to comment on the video, with one person sharing that this had happened to them: “Had this a few years ago they took a few things from the car.”

Another added their own hack for stopping a rental car from getting broken into and said: “Also, if the rental co haven’t already done it, remove the rear parcel shelf so when they look in they can see the boot is empty, leave glove box open too.”