• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

Burglaries & Other Crimes Facilitated By Toxic Gas Or Anaesthetic Agents

Camping tourists traveling with camping vans in western Sweden got problems with night time thieves. They might experience getting robbed during the night when they have stopped on resting places for overnight sleep. The thieves use gas to prevent them from waking up.
 
"Staying with friends in a rented villa." The staff thing. Does one take one's own, rely on local recruits or hope one's chums have brought some, along with a bottle opener? Just don't forget to pack £300,000 worth of valuables!

I don't know, it's so long since I did it. :p
 
JamesWhitehead said:
"Staying with friends in a rented villa." The staff thing. Does one take one's own, rely on local recruits or hope one's chums have brought some, along with a bottle opener? Just don't forget to pack £300,000 worth of valuables!

I don't know, it's so long since I did it. :p
Click to expand...
Yeah.
The £300,000 of valuables thing. That sets off my cynicism alarm.
I hope they were well insured. ;)
 
T---- Travel Insurance. Single trip for £20 and they'll cover up to £300,000 no problem! :D

Only the first £299,900 is excess*. :confused:

*I've had to stop taking my tiara.
 
Last edited:
What kind of gas? How expensive is it, and how do the burglars make a profit? How flammable is it? How do the burglars calculate the correct dosage that will a/ be certain to knock them out and b/ not kill them? One might expect 20% fatalities in such an operation. How many people have died being burgled by anaesthetists? Come to think of it, how many anaesthetist burglars have been apprehended?

My vote is 'urban myth'.
 
Surely the burglars would also need an aqualung or rebreather or something similar to avoid gassing themselves when they went in?

It does all seem very impractical.
 
In the story "the night the bed fell", James Thurber mentions his old aunt being terrified of a mad gasser blowing chloroform under her door with a tube. Since she was more afraid of anasthetics than being robbed, she'd pile all her valuables by the door with a note telling the mad gasser to just take it all. :D

This story was from (I think) the early 1930's, so this type of tale has been around a long time.

Interesting to think it's no more feasable now than it was back then.
 
I'm thinking xenon might just work, as it is a very safe and non-flammable anaesthetic - but it is horrendously expensive.
 
eburacum said:
Sorry, I didn't doubt you, and he may believe that he was gassed. But the truth is that any anaesthetic that could be used would be
a/ fantastically expensive and
b/ fatal in about 20% of cases, if the Moscow Siege incident is anything to go by.
Click to expand...

According to Wikipedia "The security services pumped an aerosol anaesthetic, later stated by Russian Health Minister Yuri Shevchenko to be based on fentanyl ,[38] into the theater through the air conditioning system"

They lucked out if that only killed 20 percent of the hostages/gunmen. Addicts are dropping like flies in my area from Fentanyl it's pretty deadly.
 
Grand Tour star Richard Hammond and his wife Mindy were gassed and burgled as they slept in their holiday villa in the South of France.

A team of burglars used knock-out gas on Hammond and his family before pillaging their San Tropez villa, his wife Mindy fears.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/richard-hammond-wife-mindy-were-13179525

"The two raiders were caught on camera – and police arrested them within 48 hours of the break-in last month." - maybe the police will be able to find out if gas really was involved. Or just a lot of booze.
 
Interesting that this story is so similar to the one at the start of the thread, down to victims in both being motorsports celebrities plus their spouses.
 
The whole concept of “gas burglaries” is nonsense. The victims were either deeply asleep and hit by professional burglars, or they were drunk or off their tits on (self-administered) drugs.

The idea that crims could acquire large quantities of the appropriate gas, transport it to the locus and administer it to the victims via air conditioning or windows without killing half of them and leaving the other half unaffected, is ridiculous.

It’s become the excuse du jour for embarrassed celebs, or those seeking sympathy to go with their nice insurance payout.

As an aside, the first “victims” of this non-existent MO that l can recall were Trinny and Susannah back in 2002. Isn’t it amazing that no crim has been caught in flagrante, or in possession of appropriate kit, in almost 20 years...

:rolleyes:

maximus otter
 
Last edited:
maximus otter said:
The idea that crims could acquire large quantities of the appropriate gas, transport it to the locus and administer it to the victims via air conditioning or windows without killing half of them and leaving the other half unaffected, is ridiculous.
Click to expand...

I don't know how practicable it is, but have you seen The Wild Geese?
 
Coal said:
I'm not sure burglary was the objective there. :cool:
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure that you could have achieved that result with a bottle or two or Bolly, without resorting to Mission Impossible tactics.

maximus otter

PS: Bagsy Susannah.
 
Yithian said:
I don't know how practicable it is, but have you seen The Wild Geese?
Click to expand...

Decades ago. I don't recall the administration of gas being involved in what I will laughingly refer to as the "plot".

maximus otter
 
maximus otter said:
Decades ago. I don't recall the administration of gas being involved in what I will laughingly refer to as the "plot".

maximus otter
Click to expand...

It strangely comical and horrific at once.

They sneak in and gas hundreds of soldiers while they're sleeping in their beds
 
maximus otter said:
I'm pretty sure that you could have achieved that result with a bottle or two or Bolly, without resorting to Mission Impossible tactics.

maximus otter

PS: Bagsy Susannah.
Click to expand...
You misunderstand, I'm suggesting that they are not that popular...you can have both.
 
Tribble said:
maybe the police will be able to find out if gas really was involved. Or just a lot of booze.
Click to expand...

Yup, it'll be booze. It normally is in these cases.

There was a flap a few years ago about 'date rape' drugs, which were apparently being slipped into women's drinks in every bar in the world. It's easy to test for if a woman ends up in hospital but is rarely found. Usually the victim is just drunk. Whatever has happened to them, it didn't start with a spiked drink.
 
One of my English tutors years ago* told us that on holiday abroad, possibly France, can't remember now but I've mentioned it before on'ere! she and her party were gas-robbed on a train. The gas was believed to have been piped into the carriage by corrupt staff through vents. Passengers woke up to find all their valuables gone.



*The daughter of a prominent Irish politician, so there were discreet bodyguards around all the time. I'm sure she believes this happened.
 
escargot said:
One of my English tutors years ago* told us that on holiday abroad, possibly France, can't remember now but I've mentioned it before on'ere! she and her party were gas-robbed on a train. The gas was believed to have been piped into the carriage by corrupt staff through vents. Passengers woke up to find all their valuables gone.

*The daughter of a prominent Irish politician, so there were discreet bodyguards around all the time. I'm sure she believes this happened.
Click to expand...
I wonder what this mysterious gas is?
 
Mythopoeika said:
I wonder what this mysterious gas is?
Click to expand...

It's that white smoke that wafts out of floor-level grilles in walls in Mission Impossible and The Champions. Also possibly Captain Scarlet and Tom and Jerry.
 
There are chemicals that can cause a lot of damage in small concentrations - nerve agents for example. But they would kill or maim rather than put to sleep.

The idea of robbings being done with ether on a cloth is a UL AFAIK - IIRC ether doesn't work like that.
 
escargot said:
...a flap a few years ago about 'date rape' drugs, which were apparently being slipped into women's drinks in every bar in the world. It's easy to test for if a woman ends up in hospital but is rarely found. Usually the victim is just drunk.
Click to expand...

Yep. I can imagine the statement to the police: "I started the evening with two bottles of Prosecco, then had three Jägerbombs, a pint of Snakebite, two Porn Star Martinis, four pints of lager and a Cheeky Vimto. Then [name] must have slipped me a roofy, because I woke up in bed with him."

:rolleyes:

maximus otter
 
You're going to have to tell me what a 'Pornstar Martini' is.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top