Family "Gassed" in France..... (1 Viewer)

[DuxDeluxe]

Sorry, DuxDeluxe I didn't mean to come over as smug but rather it seems that many 'older' folk on here mention their doc calling them in for an annual MOT, blood pressure, cholesterol check etc. which mine never has. I last went to mine about 5 yrs ago after being nagged by my family who had heard about the importance of prostate checks. He asked me why I wanted one and I told him that since I have to get up most nights for the loo it seemed sensible. "Well" he sighed as he moved to open the door: "They are unreliable and inconclusive. Besides, what do you expect at 74?"
As I stepped into the corridor I just had time to tell him that I hadn't known what to expect as it was the first time I'd been 74.
And that was that.

Don’t worry about it. Decent of you to apologise for it as well

 

[PeteH]

PLEASE. Gents, Don`t make light of Prostate Cancer, tempting as it may seem. It takes as many men than Breast Cancer of women. I`ve lost 4 good friends in the last 3 years and know of 3 currently living with the knowledge that they are in the High Risk category (Raised PSA`s). Caught Early. It is "curable" with some side effects. IF you normally have to "go" more that once in the night. Unless of course the volume of Ale has been excessive. It is best to get tested. PSA`s are only an indication and have given false results too, (according to my G-P) BUT you could get more time with your loved ones. Unlike my best buddy, I kept telling him to see his G_P, he kept putting it off. He died June 2015. 2 Days after his granddaughter was Christened.

Back on topic:- This gassing business was put to bed years ago by the College of Anaesthetists, Who basically said any gas used would either be ineffective OR would kill. The Russians killed several patrons at a concert in (Moscow?) some years back when they tried to sudue terrists holding audience to ransom!. by introducing a anaesthetic type gas to the auditorium.

 

[Larrynwin]

It was regular PSA test that found my cancer and had my prostate removed 8 years ago.
Surprising that a GP turned someone away on the basis that PSA test are unreliable, that is known but being the only test available its always best to be checked.

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[anniej]

Much more reliable is to get your GP to examine you and feel your prostate. Sorry chaps a little bit embarrassing and uncomfortable. No different then us girls having our tits squashed. Painful!

 

[Larrynwin]

Much more reliable is to get your GP to examine you and feel your prostate. Sorry chaps a little bit embarrassing and uncomfortable. No different then us girls having our tits squashed. Painful!

It is normal for a rectal examination in addition to PSA tests.

 

[drivingontheroadto]

In August 2017 in the A75 motorway Aire de la Lozere in an area set aside for motorhomes, something similar happened to us. I have stayed in the very same spot about 20 times over the years and it has the feeling of a campsite. Perhaps its that familiarity that meant I let my guard down, I don't know.

We arrived at about 9pm on a nice summers evening, parked next to another English motorhome and were joined by two of those Polish registered soft-side vans with the over-cab that are everywhere in Europe. The two commercial vans left after an hour or so and we set to bed. When we awoke in the morning the wardrobe open, as I got up to close it. I noticed our phones missing, they had been sitting next to our heads and the bed, moving towards the front of the van things were dawning on me as noticed the cab curtain undone and my credit cards and wallet strewn around the cab. It was a horrible feeling and I shouted out loud, we've been robbed. Worse was the worry as my panicked wife was calling out to out to our then 8 year old, who was in the above the cab and not answering. Fortunately, he did then answer, and at that point, nothing else mattered because he was OK.

A quick look around the van, all that had gone was the cash from the wallet (about 200 euro and the phones). Travel documents, passports, credit cards all rifled through but not taken.

Were we gassed?
I don't think so. Motorhomes are full of ventilation and are big space to fill with enough gas to knock out two adults and a child. Also, if these supposed gassings were actual gassings I that we I think we would hear about a lot of dead people where the amateur anesthetists got things wrong. We have both talked about it and the French police did ask us if we felt like OK and if we felt we had been gassed.
If we weren't gassed, what did happen?
We were robbed by some people who knew where to look and knew what they were doing and were willing to take the risk. They opened a wardrobe door that is noisy and held in place with a magnet but without waking us. They knew how to open it quietly, perhaps by sliding a piece of cardboard between the magnet and the door. They knew where the phones would be plugged in, that being the convinient charge point next to the TV and bed. They knew how to move about the van quietly without waking us and no doubt knew how to hide in the shadows if we woke and I suspect if we had awoken they would have been willing to point a knife at us.

How did they get in?
When we awoke and discovered the robbery we also found the cab door was undone, no damage, but drivers door was ajar and unlocked. Did I lock the doors that night? Both my wife and I remember having a conversation, her asking me if I locked the doors and me pressing the button on the key and answering yes. But I can remember thinking that I didn't hear the central locking click as I pressed the button, but assumed that was because the doors were already locked. The French Police think we were key jammed and they then came back to rob us after.



What have we learnt from the experience.

1. Even if a motorway aire looks like it is set-up for motorhome overnight use, don't stay there. Move off the motorway and stay elsewhere.
2. Fit a habitation alarm
3. Fit a security lock on hab door
4. Fit window alarms
5. Put the seatbelts through the door handles when parking in non motorway aires.
6. Don't rely on just pressing the button on the key, double check doors are locked with a physical check
7. Sleep on top of anything of value, cash, wallets, cards, passports. If you are sleeping on top of it they have to move you to get it.
8. Keep a physical list of every credit and debit card you are carrying and the phone numbers of issuing banks
9. Reporting a crime to the French Police takes a half day
10. French Police make one hell of a mess fingerprinting your van

Final learning is that we love using our van and an experience like this wont stop us. We have been burgled in our own house while sleeping so being robbed in the motorhome is just the same but this time they could steal the vehicle because we were in it. Most people in the world are good, like those that helped us when were were robbed, the English couple next door who lent me their phone. I must have looked quite a site as I stood in the foyer of a large motorways service station shouting "can anyone help me, I don't speak French and I have been robbed" and I am eternally grateful to the kindness of one man who tried to help me out.

Its horrible being robbed but it can happen anywhere. Learn form the experience and up your security, learn from others experience and try not to sleep in French Motorway Aires but mostly don't let the experience put you off using your van.

Good luck
Mark

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[joka250]

Excellent and rational post by@drivingontheroadto it is very sad that he and family experienced this but they emerged from it safely. There's something there for us all to learn from. Perhaps media could learn from this.

 

[Richard n Ann]

Nobody signal jams our cab locks ?

?
£140 worth every penny ?

 

[romany]

I always have and always will pass a chain through my front cab doors

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[Augusta08]

We were in a campsite in Gothenburg in May this year, parked on the end of a string of vans. In the morning our neighbours had all been broken into. Phones iPads and cash stolen. We were untouched, maybe we looked too poor, or like Richard and Ann I've got L4V locks on the doors and elephants on the habitation door.

 

[keithchesterfield2]

 

[OG1]

Why would anyone have £50000 Rolex all it does is tell the time and open you up to be MUGGED.

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[Richard n Ann]

Why would anyone have £50000 Rolex all it does is tell the time and open you up to be MUGGED.

Which begs the question, why would anyone mug you for a £50000 rolex? ? all it does is opens THEM up to be mugged... ? I think I think too much ?

 

[keithchesterfield2]

Why would anyone have £50000 Rolex all it does is tell the time and open you up to be MUGGED.

You don't necessarily have to have a pricy Rolex - but it's a decent amount to claim on your Insurance rather than the one you've actually got from inside a Cracker last Christmas .....
?

 

[NewboyNB]

Mine was 40k and perfectly accurate.

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[PeteH]

I don`t know if it is an effect from 20+years of "Shoregoing" as an M-N Engineer. But I seem to have acquired a sixth sense for "dodgy" places. Several times over the years of travelling and Caravan / Motor-homing, UK, Continent and the USA. I have got this feeling that "this is not right". I have learned to trust it, and so far I have never had to face the situation. The nearest we may have come was Circa 2003 on our way back from wintering in Spain. We pulled into a Town centre Aire in France, and prepared to spend the night before an early start for Calais. As it got dark, a Renault Van with several North African "Gentlemen" and a couple of "Ladies". pulled in and parked up. SWMBO, noticed that they seemed to be taking an inordinate interest in the car on the trailer. As I needed some "kip", it had been a long day, I slept until midnight and the wife kept a watch. We pulled out just before midnight and set off for Calais, Maureen said later they had been walking about outside quite regularly and kept looking at our rig. Maybe? they where just curious? there are not too many R-V`s in France? but their behaviour definitely aroused suspicion.

 

[Onemanandhisdog]

Have any of these stories ever had a family with a dog? They tend to be far more alert than humans and if anyone had been watching they may have gone to another van.

I've certainly had no issues with two Rhodesian Ridgebacks on board!

 

[Jim]

Have any of these stories ever had a family with a dog? They tend to be far more alert than humans and if anyone had been watching they may have gone to another van.

I've certainly had no issues with two Rhodesian Ridgebacks on board!

Yes a couple of the gassing stories mention dogs. Funnily enough, none of them mention functioning alarms.

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[Cheshirecat57]

Have any of these stories ever had a family with a dog? They tend to be far more alert than humans and if anyone had been watching they may have gone to another van.

I've certainly had no issues with two Rhodesian Ridgebacks on board!

Other than more "gas" issues

 

[Onemanandhisdog]

Yes a couple of the gassing stories mention dogs. Funnily enough, none of them mention functioning alarms.

All hell would break loose if someone came in my van uninvited, ???

 

[Hymie]

We have always slept on motorway, & N Road, Aires, and will continue to do so, no amount of scaremongering will stop us doing this.

We have 2 locks and 2 bolts on the hab door & a drop down bed and passenger seat by the other, you'd have to be twizzle to get in our old 564 in the night.

Admitting you possibly forgot to secure your vehicle isn't really going to alter people's choice of overnight parking, is it.

Maybe that we don't drink alcohol and drive an ancient moho also helps with not being robbed. ?

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[yodeli]

I always have and always will pass a chain through my front cab doors

I do exactly the same and if I had to change motor home, it is on my must have list, can doors must allow a chain through.

 

[drivingontheroadto]

[QUOTE="Hymie, post: 3462181, member: 29215"

Admitting you possibly forgot to secure your vehicle isn't really going to alter people's choice of overnight parking, is it.

Maybe that we don't drink alcohol and drive an ancient moho also helps with not being robbed. ?
[/QUOTE]

I never said don't use Aires. My list was my learnings after being robbed, which included for me not to overnight in Motorway Aires. Should you choose to do so, good luck.

Please consider what you write, I found your comments with regards to alcohol a little offensive. Your comment implies I was under the influence when robbed. As I don't drink that was not the case. Your comment with regards to "admitting you possibly left the door unlocked" was also unnecessary. I don't care if you want to stop on a motorway Aire, it's your choice but as someone who has been robbed in one my post shared my experience and my learnings. I assure you that having someone in your van when you are asleep is scarry no matter how they got in.

It's up to inderviduals to assess the risk and make their own choice, my post was about letting people know the real risk to help them decide.