Unofficial French style '08

Aug 26, 2007 22 Replies

Yeah, it is rubbish! One of those urban myths that goes around because people can't accept that someone can break into your caravan and not wake you up. Basically the 'stories' are only ever "we think someone gassed the caravan/motorhome etc." but in reality there is no actual evidence.

The truth of the matter is that the amount of gas required to guarantee to knock out everyone in something the size of a caravan/motorhome is far more than is practically possible to transport, not to mention too expensive for it to be worthwhile. Even if it was possible/happening, there would have been many deaths from this type of attack - anesthetising someone is a science, not a matter of sticking a hose in a vent!

Trust me - if there were any chance of this being a reality, I would be the first one in line spending my money on one of those detectors!! Personally I'd prefer to spend the same amount of money on a carbon monoxide detector (rather more important IMHO) and a decent secondary lock for the door.

I have slept in the aires myself in the car/van several times with no issues, but I have to admit that when it was one of the more remote ones, I was a bit weary. Most people seem to pick the ones on the autoroutes and park right next to the service station where there are always plenty of people about and it is well lit.

Matt

Even if it were after a long hard night on the piss i think i would still wake up if someone tried to steal the 101 with me sleeping in the back of it. I should think that my snoring would scare most thieves off anyhow ;)

On 29 Aug, 20:56, "Rich B" wrote:

Aha - found it. (If the formatting is crap, blame Google Groups - I'm at work.)

"I again paste below the extremely useful post to this NG (i.e. uk.rec.caravanning) by Alun Jenkins on

9.11.06. which I thought had settled it once and for all.

"Since this debate rattles on from time to time, with much deliberation over how and what, I thought I'd try to get an expert view on the feasibility of using narcotic gases to knock out the occupants of motorhomes/ caravans. Since they do this all the time, so to speak, I thought I'd ask the Royal College of Anaesthetists. Somewhat to my surprise, they provided the following reply. Interesting isn't it? Sleep tight folks! "

"Dear Mr Kirby, Thank you for your enquiry. I would like to inform you that you are not the first enquirer with this question. Professor Hatch, our Clinical Advisor, has given the following previous comments: "I can give you a categorical assurance that it would not be possible to render someone unconscious with ether without their knowledge, even if they were sleeping at the time. Ether is an extremely pungent agent and a relatively weak anaesthetic by modern standards and has a very irritant affect of the air passages, causing coughing and sometimes vomiting. It takes some time to reach unconsciousness, even if given by direct application to the face on a rag, and the concentration needed by some sort of spray into a room would be enormous. The smell hangs around for days and would be obvious to anyone the next day. There are much more powerful agents around now, some of which are almost odourless. However, these would be unlikely to be able to achieve the effect you describe, and the cost would be huge enough to deter any thief unless he was after the crown jewels. The only practicable agent is probably the one used by the Russians in the Moscow siege - I advised the BBC on their programme about this. The general feeling is that they used an agent which is not available outside the KGB! Finally, unsupervised anaesthesia, which is what we are really talking about is very dangerous. In the Moscow siege about 20% of victims died from asphyxia, because their airways were unprotected. If the reports you talk about are true I would have expected a significant number of deaths or cases of serious brain damage to have been reported." I hope this information is helpful to you.

Regards, Ms Shirani Nadarajah General Administrator Professional Standards Directorate

The Royal College of Anaesthetists"

That seems fairly conclusive to me.

-- Rich B Bandit 1200S

Join the Discussion

Have something to add? Share your thoughts — no account required.

Didn't find your answer?

Ask the community — no account required