My business partner got done over this week near Narbonne on the A9 in his Sprinter van.
He woke up with his passenger door open,iPad gone,spare old iphone,diary,passport and alot of Euro’s gone to.
He never heard a thing and is a light sleeper,the police asked if he felt nauseous to which he replied “yes”… He’s doesn’t suffer with headaches,migraines and doesn’t drink whilst away.They mentioned “gassing” saying criminals mix chloroform with something to knock you out,just enough time to grab what they can and be gone…!!
Only takes a minute they said…!!
He had to get an emergency passport from the British Embassy in Paris this morning to get back in to UK.
There were some marks/scratches around the lock on drivers door,don’t use a Sprinter myself so don’t know whether they dead lock,my Transit does,only way in via the doors is if you have the remote as when I double lock it I can’t even open it from the inside by pulling the lever,I have to use the remote,would of thought that Sprinters have the same…!!
He did stop in an “aire parc” as opposed to proper services…!!
Not a wise choice IMO
I have it on good authority (the mayors daughter talks in her sleep), that gassing doesn’t happen you know
I have to say I retain a bit of an open mind on the gassing myth. What I can’t understand, is why this stuff never seems to hit the news; and I’ve always assumed it’s because it cannot be substantiated. I was parked up in Castets down towards the Spanish border at Irun about ten years ago and it was the weekend, so there was lots of beer and drivers’ talk. Everyone was talking about ‘the gassing’. Apparently, Castets had been dead the previous weekend because of gassing the week before that. The story was that 3 Frenchmen were gassed in their cabs. Apparently, it was a special nerve-gas that paralysed the driver but left him aware of what was happening. The gas killed 2 of the drivers, but the third one survived and reported that the gassers had departed immediately in a Czech registered lorry. TWO DRIVERS KILLED!? That HAD to be national or even international news, not to mention the security news of Czech bandits running around with ‘ex-soviet’ nerve agents! So I looked for the news. None. I asked French drivers if it was on the local news, or national news, or in France Routes or France-TIR magazine. Nothing! In the end, I was left to assume that a small incident had been blown out of all proportion into gossip and rumour. That is, unless one of you has a secret news-cutting of the incident hidden in a drawer!! Robert
I just don’t believe the gassing theory.
Where do they get this gas from? You can’t jus get chloroform like that. If you could get it, surely you would use it on a better target than a parked up van 
Also, how come there have NEVER been any driver deaths from these gassing incidents…? Anaesthetic agents need to be dosed according to the size of the person etc etc, also how are they delivered effectively to induce unconsciousness but not kill the person? It takes years to learn to do such a thing safely.
It can’t happen like people say.
Some people mention they use “easy start”
How true I don’t know,they spray the whole contents in and then break in,if you wake up,they leg it,if not Bingo,they grab what they can… 