A colleague of mine, John, had his cab broken into on sunday evening while he slept in Capellen services, the side on the way into Luxembourg. He is normally a light sleeper but when he woke in the morning he noticed that a couple of the lockers in the cab were open, things had been moved around the cab, one curtain wasn’t shut properly and the door wasn’t closed properly either. He hadn’t heard a thing and also didn’t feel great. The door lock is broken and can’t be locked with the key now.
Luckily he hides things like his wallet, passport, fuel cards before he goes to sleep and the only thing taken was wedding ring, which he takes off every night before going to sleep.
I also received an RHA news update in which they say a member has contacted them about one of his drivers being gassed and robbed in Capellen the same night, this wasn’t John as his boss didn’t report it to the RHA so it looks like the [zb’s] had a good night.
Sorry to hear about your friend neil , unfortunatly this is a growing occurance due to the fact the police presence is not as large on the ground at night as it used to be,I belive it will not take much more and
we will have a serious incident due to the way these criminals work,
Atleast this is being taken more seriously now. It wasn’t long ago that the topic was raised on here and quite a few people questioned that such things even take place in reality. This has happened to my dad three times on the continent but since he’s been driving Merc Actross’s its stopped. The Iveco’s he used to drive had the airvents for the cab on the wall at the rear of the cab so it was very easy to pump gas in, this isn’t possible on his current truck and his previous Actross’s and in about three years of driving Merc’s hasn’t had a single attack.
You know them lights you get on your house that light up when you go near them could there be a market here for the same thing fitted to trucks? Say anyone coming within 2 feet or something .
It all depends on wether you personally take “your own personal safety” serious, are you one of those who thinks ,“it will never happen to me”?. In my truck i’ve got a smoke/gas alarm, protek cab door and kab guard.Have you asked your boss for good security, it could be cheaper for him in the long run !!.
a couple of years ago i was gassed and robbed at the same place but on the opposite side.
i’ve since been equipped with protekdor lock guards and my boss supplies them to all of our drivers (now 4) free of charge but they are for the truck and are not the drivers personal property (as you would expect really).
all of our trucks except 1 has an alarm fitted and immobiliser.
all of the drivers use the lokguards and it’s good to be working for someone that cares so much about their drivers safety.
belgium, holland, france, spain and luxembourg appear to be the worse hit for this type of crime.
does anybody know of any attacks in germany?
The attacks do happen here in germany , but right now it is mainly the
car &caravan tourists that are recieving the problem, at present have not had any reports concerning attacks on truckers but YES it does occur here as well also they are not worried about harming the driver when he retaliates, so be warned and try to park in a safe area when possible.
Very Interesting!!
Does a normal smoke detector (e.g from Argos) detect gas?
Or did you buy a model that did gas too?
What make was it and where did you purchase it.
Very Interesting!!
Does a normal smoke detector (e.g from Argos) detect gas?
Or did you buy a model that did gas too?
What make was it and where did you purchase it.
MAD28:
Sorry to hear about your colleague Neil, glad he is ok. Just out interest what was he driving??
When i told my dad he was shocked, he always thought Capellen was a safe place.
Nowhere is a safe place it seems. One of the time’s my dad was gassed he was in a service area near Eindhoven and less than 200yards away was a police station. When he came around in the morning, two hours late with a splitting headache and his money gone and lock broken he stumbled over to the police station and told them what happened and their response was “what! it happened to you too?” so he said if they know it happens why dont they patrol the bloody place to which they replied “well, we can’t patrol all night can we” so that was that. Another driver from his company wasn’t so lucky and whilst it isn’t official, we all suspect he was killed by the gas as he was a healthy man and after been missing for a number of days his truck was found in France and he was dead inside with the lock broken and some of his money gone, but the French didn’t want to admit that such a problem exists in France so his death was put down as natural causes with no suspicious circumstances. Ofcourse we can never be sure what happened but given that drivers have been killed or being paralised after having being gassed, it is very likely that that is what happened.
I’m convinced that they only target certain makes of truck that allow access for gas being pumped into the cab through the air vents. My dad’s three attacks were all in Iveco Eurotech/Stars as they had their vents for all to see on the rear of the cab, in fact one of them, or both, had two vents, one which we think was just for show and during one of the attacks the gang tried connecting to the wrong vent and made a lot of noise and woke my dad up, he confronted them, when they produced guns and threatened him before running off empty handed, the gang were all Polish with one of them speaking English with a London accent. Anyhow, in the past few years since he’s been driving Actross’s he’s never had the slightest bit of bother, and we put this down to the absense of any visible air vents on the truck that are accessable for this kind of attack.
sorry but i’am and always have been ultra sceptical about this issue, as numerous experts have said it’d be almost impossible to administer just the right amount of substance through an air vent into such a large area as a cab to have the right effect - i.e just enough to sedate but not to kill
my view is that 99% of these cases are actually people blowing running money and needing an excuse (i KNOW this one’s happened), being blotto, or just plain sleeping too heavily to hear an intruder and not wanting the p**s taken for it and / or trouble from the gaffer
robinhood_1984:
MAD28:
the gang were all Polish with one of them speaking English with a London accent.
polish lorry drivers i expect robinhood? wondered when you’d climb back on your hobbyhorse son
THEY SAY that the LOCH NESS MONSTER AND THE YETI; OH AND NOT FORGETTING jesus ARE REAL so please try to have a open mind
as it is a real life problem for some people.
AND if you are still in doubt try connecting with the relevent police forces of the EU STATES and they will tell you it is a real life problem,
jj72:
sorry but i’am and always have been ultra sceptical about this issue, as numerous experts have said it’d be almost impossible to administer just the right amount of substance through an air vent into such a large area as a cab to have the right effect - i.e just enough to sedate but not to kill
my view is that 99% of these cases are actually people blowing running money and needing an excuse (i KNOW this one’s happened), being blotto, or just plain sleeping too heavily to hear an intruder and not wanting the p**s taken for it and / or trouble from the gaffer
robinhood_1984:
MAD28:
the gang were all Polish with one of them speaking English with a London accent.
polish lorry drivers i expect robinhood? wondered when you’d climb back on your hobbyhorse son
No, not Polish lorry drivers, Polish criminals who go and go in cars or small vans usually. Just because I have spoken out against the practices of Polish companies, it doesn’t mean I cannot speak out against criminals who turn out to be Polish.
As for your view that 99% of these are made up, thats the typical sort of comment I’d expect from a type of person who believes nothing in this world unless they have personal experience of the matter, given that you seem not to have, everyones obviously making it up aren’t they. Just because you cannot see beyond the end of your own nose, don’t pass off the attacks on people such as my father and others we know as made up nonsense, thats a very personal and insulting attack you’re making there.
Do you even know 99% of these drivers who report such attacks?
These experts you speak of dont prove it doesn’t happen, quite to the contrary. This is the reason why several drivers in East Germany are now paralised after having being gassed, some are dead, some get knocked out and wake up hours later with a headache, and some wake up during the robbery itself. But hey, its never happened to you, so its never happened to anyone, how clever.
brit pete:
AND if you are still in doubt try connecting with the relevent police forces of the EU STATES and they will tell you it is a real life problem,
Befor we start getting into a mud slinging match, people should research on the subject that they wish to debate and then show the where they have
compilied the gathered research sorry but here in Europe unfortunatly it is true a large majority of crimes are being conducted by criminals from eastern-europe countrys ,Albania,Romania,Bulgria, etc, so this means that people get mistrustful, but these criminals are only a small number BUT
they make life every one and yes they do Rob their own countrymen as well,This is a known fact and by reading the archives of the german
newspapers you will find that these facts are true,The west-european criminal is not so active in this branch of criminal activeity,but ,yes they are still a part of the whole problem,
