Robbed in france

[chilistrucker]

just a warning too you all.

my mate is on his way back from castellon, guess what he’s loaded with.
last night he stopped at a motorway services for the night. i believe it was near j7, of the a83, towards nantes. he awoke at 6am today, feeling groggy, and not quite right. shortly after, he realised he’d been turned over.
we think he was gassed■■?
just guessing, as this hasn’t happened too either of us before.
he soon realised his wallet was gone, and the truck door, a 105xf, was part open. they’d bust the lock too get in, nab his wallet and do the off.
luckily, he found the wallet, by the catwalk, credit cards and personal stuff intact, but 100 euros had been stolen. gutted for him, he’s a top lad, and didn’t deserve this, well, none of us do.

he told me, none of the windows, or roof were open, so, not wishing too sound naive, if he was gassed, how do they do this

i was surprised too be honest, as apart from obvious hotspot areas, didn’t really think this was a problem in france, naples a fews years back maybe, but, nantes…hopefully not the start of a trend.

too top it all, he got into cherbourg this afternoon, and the police and customs pounced on him. he politely asked them, why they are so keen too stop british plated motors at ports, and borders, (especially irun), too check docs, tachos, trailers etc, but not as keen too patrol motorway service areas at night, too stop people getting turned over, aparently, they pretty quickly moved on.

i know they can’t be every where all the time, but if they moved off irun etc now and then, perhaps the baddies wouldn’t get too know their patterns

[ben9]

There are signs in a lot of service areas(in english) in the South of France warning you that this does go on and advising you not to stop in particular areas.

Sad but at least they do pre warn you.

[chilistrucker]

gotta be honest, would be very dubious of stopping at certain places along the forest road, (if you can bloody get in em) but sort of thought nantes would be ok.
just goes too show.

[euromat]

poor sod, a bloke i used to work with got broken into in spain so he used to strap his doors together at night inside so they couldnt get in. i need to get some of them protek lock things, been told our lot will pay for them

[don_madge]

chilistrucker:
just a warning too you all.

my mate is on his way back from castellon, guess what he’s loaded with.
last night he stopped at a motorway services for the night. i believe it was near j7, of the a83, towards nantes. he awoke at 6am today, feeling groggy, and not quite right. shortly after, he realised he’d been turned over.
we think he was gassed■■?
just guessing, as this hasn’t happened too either of us before.

Hi,

A debate on gassing went on for many months on a few of the motorhome forums and things got a bit heated at times.

In the end somebody contacted the Royal College of Anaesthetists and this was their reply.

Thank you for your enquiry. I would like to inform you that you are not the first enquirer with this question. Professor Hatch, our Clinical Advisor, has given the following previous comments:

"I can give you a categorical assurance that it would not be possible to render someone unconscious with ether without their knowledge, even if they were sleeping at the time. Ether is an extremely pungent agent and a relatively weak anaesthetic by modern standards and has a very irritant affect of the air passages, causing coughing and sometimes vomiting. It takes some time to reach unconsciousness, even if given by direct application to the face on a rag, and the concentration needed by some sort of spray into a room would be enormous. The smell hangs around for days and would be obvious to anyone the next day.

There are much more powerful agents around now, some of which are almost odourless. However, these would be unlikely to be able to achieve the effect you describe, and the cost would be huge enough to deter any thief unless he was after the crown jewels. The only practicable agent is probably the one used by the Russians in the Moscow siege - I advised the BBC on their programme about this. The general feeling is that they used an agent which is not available outside the KGB!

Finally, unsupervised anaesthesia, which is what we are really talking about is very dangerous. In the Moscow siege about 20% of victims died from asphyxia, because their airways were unprotected. If the reports you talk about are true I would have expected a significant number of deaths or cases of serious brain damage to have been reported."

I hope this information is helpful to you.

Regards,

Ms Shirani Nadarajah
General Administrator

Professional Standards Directorate
The Royal College of Anaesthetists""

See also rcoa.ac.uk/index.asp?PageID=64&NewsID=565

Many elderly motorhomers claimed to be gassed but there were never any fatalities. Nobody ever went to hospital/doctor for a blood test to check whether they had in fact been gassed.

Don

[wheel_nut]

JJ72. It’s your stage

[jj72]

Wheel Nut:
JJ72. It’s your stage

hmmm, thank you dr.malc - as far as i’m concerned this is my last post (or last thread contributed to any rate) on this, it’s cobblers pure and simple

whether these people are covering up naughty spending (seen it done), are just fantasists who want to make joe public believe it’s like the wild west doing european work, or some other bizarre reason (munchausens?) i do not know, but it does not happen as these people claim, end of

[wheel_nut]

No. I agree with you, a burglar who is geared up with gas, jemmys and other paraphenalia will certainly know the value of credit cards and fuel cards. No one is going to risk a good kicking for 70 quid when they could have the plastic as well as the diesel.

I have heard that ladies of the night will help themselves to money if the client is a bit unwilling to pay for services rendered

[magners]

Don’t assume that because all the plastic cards were left intact that they haven’t been cloned! It could be so that you don’t cancel them and then they can carry on using the cloned ones - been done before.

[chilistrucker]

thanks too all for your replies.

interesting reading re the medical affects of supposed gassings, at least it proves it beyond doubt.

matt, if you get those locks, let me know if they are any good, and cost, if you can. our gaffer would get them, if they are a worthy investment.

for those who have an opinion, and just too set the record straight. i think barring euromat, none of you know me, or my friend, so your free too jump too conclusions, but i can guarentee, thet neither of us are your been there, seen it, done it merchants, we don’t eat and breath diesel fumes, and neither of us would paint the job in europe, as the, WILD WEST! muppet.
in 15 years of european work, we have never felt the need too buy furry clogs, a wallet on a chain, and a leather waistcoat, but hey, if thats your thing, go for it.

this is the first time either of us has had any such incident, apart from matey, that used too try and flog you a plastic leather coat, or fake video camera, on the a4, just before you got into milan, (pero servs i think)

my mate, was turned over, he just wouldn’t make it up, no matter what conclusions you may, or may not have come too.

it is indeed a mystery, as too why he didn’t wake, he’d had 1 beer with his dinner, so it wasn’t that, not sure what it could have been, coz think most of us would wake if someone was breaking into your wagon with force.

i just thought i’d post a warning too all, won’t bother in future, and hope it doesn’t happen too anyone else in the future.

[the_rustler]

I have never been too sure if the stories of being gassed are all true - there was much talk a few years ago when i was running Belgium every week, and later when i too was doing Spain.

In terms of security i know that the older Daf 95’s were V.V.V. EASY to get into … place end of screwdriver on door lock … hard bang … door lock pops thro’ … door opens ! I know one lad who got this done TWICE in one trip ! ! This i assure you, is NO story ! The Protek door locks solve this ( don’t get out for a p*** in the night and lock yourself out tho’ LOL ). I know of several firms that use them … Richard Long for one. Using a strap across the doors is ok if you are in the cab @ night, but no use if the wagon is just parked.
Don’t know if the same prob. applies to newer 105’s … if it does then Daf need to get the “thinking caps” on ?

[daleyboy]

chilistrucker:
it is indeed a mystery, as too why he didn’t wake, he’d had 1 beer with his dinner, so it wasn’t that, .

It only takes one beer spiked with say rhohipnol(spelling) and i am sure this would probably have the desired effect of knocking someone out cold

[squarepeg]

chilistrucker:
just a warning too you all.

my mate is on his way back from castellon, guess what he’s loaded with.
last night he stopped at a motorway services for the night. i believe it was near j7, of the a83, towards nantes.

Sounds like Aire de Vendee, only ever stopped there once.

Truck Park is remote and well hidden from buildings and when I was there, Saturday night, only 3 trucks parked up. I had an uneasy feeling, but no alternatives.

chilistrucker:
gotta be honest, would be very dubious of stopping at certain places along the forest road, (if you can bloody get in em.

Agree, the biggest problems is finding parking on the forest road, by late evening even the slip roads are full.

[magners]

Chillstrucker - don’t let this put you off posting warnings, most of us aren’t know-it-alls and want to know what’s going on out there and where to avoid, Thanks.

[harry_monk]

jj72:
whether these people are covering up naughty spending (seen it done), are just fantasists who want to make joe public believe it’s like the wild west doing european work, or some other bizarre reason (munchausens?) i do not know, but it does not happen as these people claim, end of

Oh, but it does. This is how gassings happen.

Forget Easy-Start, that’s just an urban legend.

The truth is that the fruit machines on the Dover-Calais ferries are set up by MI5 to spray out a tiny amount of special delayed knockout gas once the driver has put 50% of his running money into them.

This kicks in two or three days later, and usually results in the driver waking up and feeling groggy, and with no cash, typically on the morning after he has seen off the last of his running money at the bar and the baghouse.

[trubrit]

jj72:

Wheel Nut:
JJ72. It’s your stage

hmmm, thank you dr.malc - as far as i’m concerned this is my last post (or last thread contributed to any rate) on this, it’s cobblers pure and simple

whether these people are covering up naughty spending (seen it done), are just fantasists who want to make joe public believe it’s like the wild west doing european work, or some other bizarre reason (munchausens?) i do not know, but it does not happen as these people claim, end of

and all this time I thought Munchausens was an eating disorder

[harry_monk]

Trubrit:
and all this time I thought Munchausens was an eating disorder

Yes, it’s when Germans feel the compulsion to eat houses.

[brit_pete]

They may use a very thin hollow
needle, which can penertrate
the rubber and allows the gas to pass
into the cabin,or they pump it throught
the night heater outlet.
A friend of mine was gassed on the
Dutch–Belgian border crossing at Postel,
they took along with his cash and cards ,passport
his laptop and dvd player.

[chilistrucker]

magners:
Chillstrucker - don’t let this put you off posting warnings, most of us aren’t know-it-alls and want to know what’s going on out there and where to avoid, Thanks.

ok, will do.
like i said, 1st time in 15 years, that i’ve actually known someone personally who was robbed. judging by the evidence, it couldn’t have been a gassing, but i did state that in my original post, that i was just assuming.

perhaps, i may have slightly misinterpreted some posts.
its just, the guy in question, really is as straight as they come.

most of us have prob seen the idiot mentality of our industry at work.
you get weekended abroad, everything starts out fine, but as the day goes on, and the drink is falling down their necks, the conversation and friendliness starts too subside, (this is when its time too make your excuses, and get away from the plums), and by the end of the night, they are rolling around the truckpark, handbags drawn, arguing over who earns what, and what truck is the best

i just didn’t want this lad, getting tarred with that brush.
he wouldn’t ■■■■■ the running money, as we don’t have any, (company credit cards) so the money he lost was his own.

looks like protek locks, are the way too go.

[jj72]

Harry Monk:
The truth is that the fruit machines on the Dover-Calais ferries are set up by MI5 to spray out a tiny amount of special delayed knockout gas once the driver has put 50% of his running money into them.

This kicks in two or three days later, and usually results in the driver waking up and feeling groggy, and with no cash, typically on the morning after he has seen off the last of his running money at the bar and the baghouse.

if that hadn’t come from you harry, i’d never have believed a word of it

and trubrit - look it up, bloody yanks! oh and your email account is full b.t.w