Attempted robbery or not? (1 Viewer)

blamehofman

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While passing Barcelona this year on route to my Brother's near Alicante a strange incident occured .... On a busy Saturday at 2pm whilst motoring past Barcelona a Mercedes pulled along side my home , suddenly a loud bang was heard and I feared the worst i.e. blow out or collision ... The Mercedes pulled in front and the passengers in the car gestured wildly for me to pull over ... My partner Ann was convinced they had lobbed a stone at the van .... To be on the safe side I pulled over on to the hard shoulder and the Mercedes stopped just in front of me .... I hit the locks and sat tight as the Mercedes passengers a Woman and a Man pointed and gestured for me to get out .... I made it clear that was not going to happen ... After 5 mins they cleared off .... I got out and found a large dent in my home's side .... Very disconcerting but the rest of our trip passed off without incident ...... Has this happened to anyone else ? and how can you avoid such incident's whilst travelling ? :Angry::Angry::Sad:
 

pappajohn

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my first thought is why did you stop if you felt uneasy ?

my advise would be drive to a busy area....garage forcourt/service area, busy rest area or a town... then stop and see whats going on.

chances are if it was a bit iffy they wouldnt follow you...if genuine concern they probably would but there'd be other folks around you.
 

madbluemad

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Mmmmmmmmmm, not very pleasant. You probabley did the right thing. Should have got the reg and rang the police.
Jim

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Jun 15, 2010
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take an air rifle with you. when they approach your door open it and shoot them in the eye. make sure its a gas charged gun, that way you can fire a good whack of shots rapid so you shouldn't miss. simples.:thumb:
 

Mixter

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Ok, so you 'heard a bang'. Did the van behave strangely, could you 'see' anything in the side mirrors - like a locker door hanging off etc.? Assuming no on both counts, id have left the 'counts' in the car gesturing, and carried on my way, stopping to check once i was in a very busy area.
 
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blamehofman

blamehofman

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Ok, so you 'heard a bang'. Did the van behave strangely, could you 'see' anything in the side mirrors - like a locker door hanging off etc.? Assuming no on both counts, id have left the 'counts' in the car gesturing, and carried on my way, stopping to check once i was in a very busy area.

It was very very busy and I had passed several police cars previously ... yes in hindsight I would'nt have stopped ..... But the thought of damage to my pride and joy ... Well as soon as I stopped I realised bad idea ... But no way was I getting out and one look at the big ugly ex coalminer sticking two fingers at them from behind the wheel must have made them think ... Bad idea too :roflmto:

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John & Joan

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Ok, so you 'heard a bang'. Did the van behave strangely, could you 'see' anything in the side mirrors - like a locker door hanging off etc.? Assuming no on both counts, id have left the 'counts' in the car gesturing, and carried on my way, stopping to check once i was in a very busy area.

While we at El Portus in 2009 we were shown a letter from the Spanish Police saying not to stop even for a marked Police car or uniformed person. Drive to the nearest filling station and only stop in the pumps, not on the approach. The Police will understand if you acknowlege them. They would only stop you forcibly if you drove past the filling station. They also gave the advice about using a camera and had a number to phone (English operator) to confirm that the vehicle actually was a police car.
 

slobadoberbob

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a few years back

A few years back.. OK many years back like 22 of them I was driving a Merc with a Glendale body and crossed the Spanish boarder (yes they had a board then) and just down a little way there was a big parking area, as we had been sitting in a long line at the board we decided to stop for some tea. We parked on the left side of the parking area (UK habitation door opened on to the grass that side) ..locked the front doors.

Looking out the window we saw a Dutch caravan come in and park a little ahead of us on the other side of the parking area.. they had there habitation door to the grass as well.. a car pulled up along side the car just a head of the caravan and two men got out went round to the other side of the caravan with a map.. yes distraction tactic.. the driver then opened the cars doors (not locked) and grabbed a couple of bags the other two came back round and the car took off.. yes we got it's number.. many hours latter no police despite frantic calls.. no bags or money or passports for the Dutch family and there holiday trashed.

We over react these days. We will not stop for anyone. In South Africa we always cross the red lights or slow down well before them so we cannot be hijacked at the lights.

Had the same Glendale window broken in France another trip in an attempt to get into the motor home... no fancy Vanbitz alarms then.

Be safe do not stop unless in a place where there is a lot of people and yes have a camera about and snap the people and car if in doubt. Always lock the doors even on the move. To many dishonest people out there.

Bob:thumb:
 
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Well that`s our 13th year & still loving it.
phew

Bloody hell we live in a real nice place don`t we, the do gooders have really made it a safe place for us to live in peace and harmony with our criminal neighbours.

Makes you feel so comfortable driving around with a Taser and shotgun in the glove compartment. :thumb:

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barryd

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Why is it always Spain?

Whenever you hear of people getting robbed or getting into trouble with the police its nearly always in Spain.
 

slobadoberbob

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what? you mean you don't?

Makes you feel so comfortable driving around with a Taser and shotgun in the glove compartment. :thumb:


What you mean you dont' .. bit of a job bending the double barrel in half and getting it in the glove box (if I had one) and the taser, well that keeps shorting the electrics.. mind you I can always jump the batteries with it when they are low:Blush:

Bob:ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:
 

Mixter

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Now a year - cant believe it!
Maybe the way to go is have a prominent sign on the rear of the unit in the language of the country you are in, to the effect of...'SMILE please, you are being recorded for security purposes'. (assuming it wasnt illegal to do so), this could be positioned adjacent to an obvious camera lens - real or fake. They dont know!

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fossle60

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Hi, I can take comfort in that if anyone lobbed a brick at my van, it would be hard to find the dent among the old ones! As we are hoping to join the others in Zahora next month I'm hoping these highway robbers wouldn't lower themselves to attacking our little old van, but they'd better be warned our dogs wont give up their cushions without a fight!
 

pappajohn

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We will not stop for anyone. In South Africa we always cross the red lights or slow down well before them so we cannot be hijacked at the lights.

:thumb:

should have had this deterant fitted Bob...they'd only try once....quite common in SA i believe.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDrzMGdYWZc[/ame]

the land that health and safety forgot to visit.
 

bernardfeay

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typical barcelona

One one single day we had 3 attempted robberies in Barcelona. Two were unsuccessful and one resulted in our cash being stolen. A year earlier we had another attempt.

For starters don't park near the Olympic Stadium, There are bushes there and thieves live in them. Lock all your doors, close all your windows, tie the front doors together.

The scam they tried to pull on us was when we were on an exit ramp coming off the motorway. We came up to the roundabout and the car in front of us stopped and one man jumped out waving a map at us. He opened the passenger door and seemed to want directions to the centre of Barcelona. We thought this strange for a Spanish person to be asking foreigners for directions to his own city centre. Then he came round to my door and opened that and showed me the map. Only later did we realise that he was looking in our door pockets for things to steal.

There was nothing there, not because of our clever planning, just luck.

My tip, don't go to Barcelona, it is full of thieves. If you must go keep the doors locked when you are travelling and expect to be surprised. Of course locking the doors also means locking the leisure door. One further tip, leave plenty of space between you and the car in front so that you can pull out into another lane if you need to.

But really, don't go to Barcelona, the cathedral is crap, it's not even finished.

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Teasy2007

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While passing Barcelona this year on route to my Brother's near Alicante a strange incident occured .... On a busy Saturday at 2pm whilst motoring past Barcelona a Mercedes pulled along side my home , suddenly a loud bang was heard and I feared the worst i.e. blow out or collision ... The Mercedes pulled in front and the passengers in the car gestured wildly for me to pull over ... My partner Ann was convinced they had lobbed a stone at the van .... To be on the safe side I pulled over on to the hard shoulder and the Mercedes stopped just in front of me .... I hit the locks and sat tight as the Mercedes passengers a Woman and a Man pointed and gestured for me to get out .... I made it clear that was not going to happen ... After 5 mins they cleared off .... I got out and found a large dent in my home's side .... Very disconcerting but the rest of our trip passed off without incident ...... Has this happened to anyone else ? and how can you avoid such incident's whilst travelling ? :Angry::Angry::Sad:

This sounds very familiar!! Friends of ours at Santa Suzanna had a similar experience going through Barcelona in September. They were towing a caravan and heard a lound bang and - as with you - a Mercedes pulled along side with 'african type men inside' they tried to get them to pull over, but they put their foot down. Eventually the men in the Mercedes gave up and drove away.

When they pulled in at an Aire the men had shot an airgun at their back light. It had shattered the glass and the pellet was still inside.

Ginny
 

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