New hazards for travellers
 

My friend Angus reported this unsettling news to me:
Last week he was mugged in Spain. Nothing new about that, we regret.
But this mugging was different…
The thieves cut out the rubber-mounted footlight of his Volvo kip-cab, and inserted a gas nozzle. They injected Dentist’s sleeping gas as Angus slept. This gas is odourless, tasteless, and failed to set off the smoke alarm.
Angus awoke at dawn with a sore throat and smarting eyes. His cab had been ransacked, he had been turned over, still asleep, and his wallet with $1000 stolen. He had known nothing about it.
He was parked on the edge of a motorway service station near Barcelona and could only offer the advice ‘Don’t park in the shadows, park under the lights by the pumps’
Apparently trucks and the more expensive motor caravans are targeted, but clearly all travellers are at risk.
After insertion of the gas the thieves wait half an hour, then come and bang on the window. If there is no answer, they can assume the gas has done its work.
Unnerving news, but I like to believe the threat must be local – it takes some organisation to get a supply of dentists gas, and to know how to use it.
Can anyone add to this report, or offer any advice to other travellers?


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Kitmax - Traveller
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