Bandits on A7 near alicante (1 Viewer)

[BreweryDave]

We are two old people, slightly over weight and I suspect could not put the fear of god into anybody.
.

Speak for yourself Mike, don’t refer to little legs like that though

 

[mikebeaches]

Wonder if it's just MHs they target?

We flew into Alicante yesterday afternoon and travelled south down the motorway to Almeria, in a hire car. And have done similar on many previous occasions, without incident.

I always believed the main 'hotspot' for that sort of trouble was in the vicinity of Barcelona - but guess any area popular with tourists is a likely target...

 

[stewartwebr]

Probably best not to include the word 'Bandits' in the title your post then!

It does worry some folk - when I ran a livery yard there was an urban myth circulating... a white van seen near livery yards and horses were found with plaited manes. According to the story this was done in order for the thieves to return later and steal said horse. This went round for a couple of years with sightings of the 'white van' the entire length of the country. Not one horse was ever stolen but it case untold worry amongst horse owners.

These tales usually involve almost magical powers on the part of the thieves. In your story the woman's bag was stolen whilst they were in their motorhome. How on earth would that happen? They didn't notice strangers getting in their vehicle whilst they were sitting there?

Come on now have you never heard of people being gassed??? Perhaps the anesthetic was administered when they were sitting having a cup of tea watching TV. This puts a new twist on it. Robbers have been replaced with bandits who have stepped up their game and now carrying out day light gassings

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[chaser]

About 5 years ago not long after we started going to Europe, and before we started reading scare stories about all the things that can happen, we were driving somewhere in Spain and needed some diesel, so we drew off a side road that indicated fuel, when we got there we were trying to fathom the pumps out, with doors open and everything that you shouldn't do , anyway this big black merc came over with two swarthy guys getting out , they came over and started talking and showing us how to use the pump and as it was getting late asked where we could stay and they showed us round the back to a massive truck stop with diner in the middle.
Anyway to get to the point, knowing all these stories that are about now, we would have been very suspicious of these guys and not spoke to them, whereas we found out later when the diner converted to an evening bistro, we were having a meal and the guys came over talking and telling us how they like campervans, and had a real good night with them.
If we had been suspicious of them like I'm afraid we might now we would have missed one of the best stops we ever had.

 

[Southdowners]

Come on now have you never heard of people being gassed??? Perhaps the anesthetic was administered when they were sitting having a cup of tea watching TV. This puts a new twist on it. Robbers have been replaced with bandits who have stepped up their game and now carrying out day light gassings

Ha Ha!!!

Ridiculous isn't it!

Some people do get worried over these scare stories though. The one I spoke about re the horse 'thieves' really got some people so anxious that they were camping in the paddocks as they were sure their horse was targeted. No amount of explaining that the plaits were only wind plaits and that no horses had ever been stolen (there's a register of such events) would allay their fears. This was at a time when rescue centres were filled to bursting with unwanted horses and you were much more likely to have a horse dumped in your paddock than you'd have one stolen!

It made no sense at all but that didn't seem to matter. I had people phoning me with 'be vigilant multiple horses have been stolen from other yards in the area' messages. Each time I made a quick phone call to the relevant yard owner who would confirm my suspicions that nothing of the sort had happened. I'd pass this information on to my customers but the rumours persisted on an almost weekly cycle. It was exhausting!

 

[gus-lopez]

Wonder if it's just MHs they target?

We flew into Alicante yesterday afternoon and travelled south down the motorway to Almeria, in a hire car. And have done similar on many previous occasions, without incident.

I always believed the main 'hotspot' for that sort of trouble was in the vicinity of Barcelona - but guess any area popular with tourists is a likely target...

No,hire cars are a target as easily spotted by the stickers. Along with brit plated vehicles then lower down any foreign plated vehicle.
Hire cars & foreign registered cars are far & away in front of motorhomes for being targeted

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[SpeedyDux]

We were on a major road in western France in our Campervan, when a bloke tried to flag us down and direct us into a lay-by. There was no vehicle parked there that looked remotely like it belonged to the Gendarmerie. I've been pulled before for a roadside alcohol check and they are always in uniform. We thought we were targetted by a scammer for being on GB plates because he had ignored the French vehicles in front of us on the road. So we decided to drive on, and he went berserk, shouting (not in English) and making rude gestures as we went by. Breakdown victim, or bandit? Either way he failed the attitude test.

 

[maison]

To add to the stories.......

On the A6, heading South through France, we saw a car on the hard shoulder with a woman waving us down.

I drew up, well beyond them, and walked back telling my wife to remain with the motorhome and keep the doors locked.

There was a family in the car, Mum, Dad and two kids. They had had a radiator hose blow. The man had wrapped a temporary repair bandage around the hose but had lost all the water. In turned that they had a m/h too and they had stopped us hoping our water tank was full, which it was.

10 minutes later, after a water relay with buckets, we followed them to the next exit to make sure they were OK.

We feel that if you take sufficient care you should be alright.

 

[jockaneezer]

Reading all these replies, the overwhelming message is that there are more people out there wanting to help you than harm you.

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[Billy23]

Ok, I have alerted Dick Barton and his sidekick To this problem, he starts work at 6.45 and normally catches the Bandits by 7pm.

 

[Sandancers]

I used to like Bandits !! Never see them these days.

 

[Nik]

LOB

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[Northernraider]

I have lots of tattoos and a very large very hard baseball bat ..... I've noticed people cross the street when I walk down it here , a guy told me the other day I looked like a Colombian cartel boss .

Bandits bring it on ..... I'm waiting grrr

 

[PeteH]

Ok, I have alerted Dick Barton and his sidekick To this problem, he starts work at 6.45 and normally catches the Bandits by 7pm.

If you remember Dick Barton, you are as OLD as me!. I`l bet you listened to "journey into space" on radio Luxembourg too!. BTW David Jacobs (D-J) was the Narrator!

 

[Northernraider]

I have lots of tattoos and a very large very hard baseball bat ..... I've noticed people cross the street when I walk down it here , a guy told me the other day I looked like a Colombian cartel boss .

Bandits bring it on ..... I'm waiting grrr

Personally I think I look sweet and cuddly

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[Mikeco]

Personally I think I look sweet and cuddly View attachment 214669

No wonder you park on your own.

 

[Northernraider]

No wonder you park on your own.

I'm learning to play the ukulele

I'm trying to be considerate

 

[EuroTrotters]

We had three incidents in two weeks back in 2006. I have copied and pasted a post I made some time back on the dark side.

The Incident I did not list was not motorhome related. But two lads with a pit bull tried to mug me in Gandia whilst I was on foot.

Here is the post, please read incident 4 at the end.



"Just back from France and Spain for 3 weeks and had a great trip. Whilst driving through Madrid...................

It was 3:10pm Sunday 30th October and the six of us had just had lunch at a very quiet motorway stop inbetween the tolls on the new R4 Radial ring road, having just paid our 5 Euros 30. It was very quiet and it seemed most of the Spanish were having siesta or using the old A4. We had only just paid our second toll of 1 euros 30 and headed into Madrid when I noticed in my passenger side mirror we were being shadowed by a white Chrysler Neon in the middle lane for around 2 miles. Then they accelerated to the side of us, and the passenger a balding Man around 45-50 years old held what was to be a fake Police photo ID to the window and pointed towards the hard shoulder suggesting that we should pull over.
Not being as green as I am cabbage looking I indicated and pulled half way onto the hard shoulder to give the impression I was going to stop. The driver of the Chrysler who's face I did not see was wearing a yellow high vis jacket. He slowed right down and I then immediately accelerated hard into the middle lane. The driver of the car then realised they had been sussed accelerated and shot off left toward Madrid city centre whilst I carried on around Madrid. It all happened so fast the only part of his reg I got was "M" indicating it was the old style Spanish Registration indicating Madrid origin.

From what I can only assume is that they may not have realised our vehicle was right hand drive and whilst initially following us may have assumed that my passenger was driving (male, small build and early twenties) and that as I said when they realised I had no intention of stopping fled rapidly from the scene.

Incident number 2

The Chrysler was nowhere to be seen through Madrid's maze of diverted ring road and by around 3:40 we were heading out of Madrid on the A1 in the direction of Burgos. I then became aware that a Silver Audi A4 was tailing us for a good few miles. I was following one of the few large trucks that were on the road at around 55mph. When the traffic thinned to just our 3 vehicles, the driver of the Audi switched on some blue flashing
lights that were hidden behind his radiator grill. I continued driving and he then straddled both of the lanes and he started to flash his lights for me to pull over, still I continued but this time I indicated and pulled into the outside lane and overtook the truck in front of us. The Audi did not follow, he turned off all his lights and left the motorway.!

Well we had intended to wildcamp somewhere before heading for the ferry at Bilbao the next day. However, this made me and my wife a bit uneasy so we ended up staying at a really nice all year campsite that I can highly recommend; COSTAJAN ARANDA DE DUERO .

we did not report the incidents whilst in Spain but are considering emailing this English Text to www.policia.es or does anyone have any better suggestions?

Take Care!"

Incident 4.

Just after the Audi driver, we stopped for a brew at a roadside aire. We packed up and continued. After a short while, a White VW T4 Van come to the side of us and started pointing at us. We all seemed to think the driver was trying to tell us to pull over.

After the last two events. My cabin crew were a bit peed off and started to make rude gestures to the driver, shouting "had enough of you lot today" "screw you" etc.

The VW Driver then gave the "you are all loco" (nutters) sign and drove off.

It was then at this point, that I noticed on this occasion, someone had left the rear locker door flapping down and poor VW man was just trying to alert us.

Thats life!

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[hilldweller]

listened to "journey into space" on radio Luxembourg too!. BTW David Jacobs (D-J) was the Narrator!

I thought it was on BBC and, anyway, you can listen to them all again on YouTube now and I enjoyed them just as much now as I did 65 years ago.

 

[Chris]

Personally I think I look sweet and cuddly View attachment 214669

Those earrings don’t look very sweet and cuddly.

 

[Billy23]

If you remember Dick Barton, you are as OLD as me!. I`l bet you listened to "journey into space" on radio Luxembourg too!. BTW David Jacobs (D-J) was the Narrator!

I remember all of that. OLD, I am the president of the old farts club and quite good at it.

I might be older than you @PeteH , did you have to go to the shop to charge the glass battery. Do you remember Turf cigarettes? Liquorice wood, 4 chews for a penny............I could go on my Mum listening to Donald Peers singing by a babbling brook

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[Wildbill]

We had them waving at us once gave them the finger abut 100 k down the road the wife asked me did you bring the dog in off the tow bar
Bill

 

[Northernraider]

Those earrings don’t look very sweet and cuddly.

Those aren't rings dear boy those are stretchers ....

 

[Clarky]

Journey into Space was definitely on the BBC, probably on the Home Service (Radio 4 to you youngsters). Think it was on Monday evening at about 7pm. Does that sound right?
Often can't remember what I did yesterday but I do remember that, strange init.

Richard.

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[jumartoo]

Personally I think I look sweet and cuddly View attachment 214669

I see you've already got a dog lead .

 

[PeteH]

I was wrong, Journey into space, was on BBC. Dan Dare, (from the "Eagle" Comic) was on Luxembourg.

 

[Clarky]

Dan Dare, (from the "Eagle" Comic) was on Luxembourg.

Didn't he also run an airline a few years ago?

Richard.

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[bilM]

Don't come to Scotland

 

[maison]

One word of warning for Brits travelling homewards in France.

Last year there were a number of Brits running scams on Autoroute service areas.

They would look for a British registration vehicle and approach them asking for help. The stories varied but, essentially, they were all the same.

They had lost/had stolen their wallets with all their money and cards inside. They had now broken down and needed 100 - 200 euros to repair their alternator/water pump or whatever in order to get back to the Ferry that evening. They then ask if the Brit can spare 10 or 20 euros towards the cost. Being such a small amount they are conned into handing the money over thinking “there but for the grace of God etc”.

Police moved them on when they were discovered but they merely set up at another service station.

 

[magicsurfbus]

If anyone pulls you over at the roadside in Spain claiming to be Police, just ask to see their badge:

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