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Burglaries & Other Crimes Facilitated By Toxic Gas Or Anaesthetic Agents

Mighty_Emperor

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Odd jobber gasses guests

By JOHN COLES

A CRANK rigged up a pipe system and tried to gas guests in a holiday cottage next to his home, a court heard yesterday.

Richard Pearce, 58, feared the visitors were part of a plot to force him and his mum from their property.

The odd job man ran a network of pipes from his loft into the rafters next door and connected them to a butane gas canister.

While holidaymakers slept, he used a tap to waft several two-minute bursts through a hole in their bedroom ceiling.

One couple left after smelling the gas — which is highly flammable and can cause asphyxia.

A second couple complained to landlord Guy Piercy, who knew his row of three cottages had no mains gas and grew suspicious.

He called police and an engineer from gas firm Transco found the pipes in Pearce’s loft in the hamlet of Acton, near Worth Matravers, Dorset.

Paranoid Pearce — who lived in the middle cottage — feared guests next door had been wafting incense into his home, Bournemouth Crown Court heard.

He also thought they were causing a draught and a “clicking noise” last July so he responded with the “tit-for-tat” move.

Pearce, who now lives in Wool, Dorset, pleaded guilty to two charges of unlawfully administering butane with intent to annoy.

His lawyer said he suffered a temporary mental illness.

Pearce was given a two-year community rehabilitation order and banned from Acton for two years.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2004152433,00.html
 
Understatement? It doesn't seem to have ocurred to them that the slightest spark (even from switching a lamp on) could have turned the place into a bomb.

Maybe we need 'The Irresponsible and Potentially Homicidal Pricks Who Got Off Too Lightly Thread'.
 
BlackRiverFalls said:
Understatement? It doesn't seem to have ocurred to them that the slightest spark (even from switching a lamp on) could have turned the place into a bomb.

Maybe we need 'The Irresponsible and Potentially Homicidal Pricks Who Got Off Too Lightly Thread'.

*Puts hand up*

Please can I nominate George W Bush.:rofl:
 
Your quite right, I forgot that...but it struck me as an Amusing turn of Phrase
 
Woman Tries to Gas Unwanted Houseguests

Tue May 18, 5:36 PM ET


VICTORVILLE, Calif. - A woman tried to get rid of unwanted houseguests by gassing them. A family friend introduced the 51-year-old woman to Kevin Frye and Andrew King and she agreed to let them spend the night, investigators said. But they overstayed their welcome — refusing to leave for six weeks as they allegedly sold drugs from her apartment.


The woman finally decided to open her oven's natural gas line in hopes of driving them away. Even after filling the apartment with gas, however, the house guests remained.

The Fire Department was called about 5:30 a.m. Monday by a woman saying she was overcome by the fumes. The 51-year-old woman was so sick she had to be taken to the hospital, in tears all the way, paramedics said.

There was no explosion and no one was seriously hurt.

The 51-year-old woman, whose name wasn't released, told San Bernardino County Sheriff's deputies that she wanted to drive away her unwanted guests, Deputy Greg Myler said.

"She said she just felt so desperate," Myler said of the woman and her 59-year-old boyfriend. "For the last six weeks they were trying to get them out."

The couple told deputies they were too afraid of their houseguests to call the Sheriff's Department for help, Myler said.

Frye, 27, and King, 29, were arrested and booked for investigation of allegedly selling cocaine from inside the apartment and the front yard, Myler said. Deputies confiscated 10 cocaine rocks and cash during a search of the apartment, Myler said.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm...10&u=/ap/20040518/ap_on_fe_st/unwanted_guests
 
I know how she feels, I have had people try to move in with me before...

Showing them a long lawn and a mower generaly works in my case.
 
This story is almost archetypically Fortean and it appears to be true. Mysterious gangs who gas and rob their camper-van driving, tourist victims.

The story I heard on BBC Radio4, this evening, spoke of French Police warning tourists to stick to officially approved camp-sites. A couple of victims, one of whom was also a doctor, said that French Police pathologists had run tests on them and although they hadn't identified any organic based gasses, they had suggested that nitrogen gas had been used to knock them out by asphyxiating them (nitrogen does not trigger the autonomous CO² response which helps drive breathing). Apparently, the French police had expressed surprise that the couple were still alive, although robbed of all their money and valuables.

That story doesn't appear to be up on the BBC News Website, yet.

This video of personal testimonies, from a couple from Wiltshire, may be of some interest to Fortean investigators.
Couple gassed by thieves

http://search.bbc.co.uk/cgi-bin/sea...france gassing&recipe=all&scope=all&edition=i

A couple from Wiltshire fear that they were gassed by thieves who broke into their camper van and stole hundreds of pounds.
BBC News Online. 17 Aug 2007

And here's a similiar story from Spain, last year.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/north_east/5277366.stm
 
More on this story, from the Daily Telegraph. The Foreign Office is warning tourists about the danger, too.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/08/17/ncaravan117.xml

Beware sleeping gas gang, caravanners told

Daily Telegraph. 17/08/2007. By Martin Beckford

The Foreign Office is advising caravanners to instal alarms after a string of tourists in France were gassed and robbed as they slept.

It is also suggested that they stay only on official campsites after Britons who had parked overnight at roadside rest areas had valuables stolen, apparently after gas was pumped into their vans to render them helpless.

In the most recent incident, an elderly couple who had parked in a lay-by near La Croix Valmer, in southern France, woke to find £1,200 in cash stolen as well as their passports, bank cards, mobile phones and satellite navigation system.

Diane Bezer and Geoff Sillito believe thieves piped sleeping gas through the vents of their camper van, knocking them out so they could raid their camper van without fear of being disturbed.

Mrs Bezer, of Winterbourne Bassett, Wilts, said: "When we woke up everything was gone and we had a really woozy feeling. The gas had an effect because we didn't wake up until 9am and we are usually awake at 7am.

"We carried on with our holiday but it was ruined. I couldn't sleep at night after it happened because I kept thinking I was breathing gas. I still feel traumatised and can't get it out of my mind."

A spokeswoman for the Foreign Office said there had been a number of reports about British holidaymakers being gassed and then robbed across France in recent years, mainly when they had parked in lay-bys and rest areas.

She added: "There have been enough cases to warrant us mentioning it in our travel advice."

The Foreign Office's advice on crime in France now states: "There is also a continuing problem of burglaries taking place during the night whilst travellers have been asleep in their caravans, mobile homes or other vehicles.

"Thefts have occurred in rest areas on the A25 (Dunkirk to Lille) and A16 (Calais-Dunkirk) motorways. In some cases, victims had first been rendered unconscious by the thieves using gas. Try to avoid parking in isolated or dark areas of camping grounds or car parks, and consider installing an alarm in your caravan or mobile home."

The Caravan Club said it had also received reports from victims and advises British tourists not to stay overnight in roadside rest areas known as Aires de Service, where most of the crimes are thought to have taken place.
It's official. :shock:
 
When this story broke last week, BBC radio (sorry, can't remember if it was 2 or 4) brought on a leading anaesthetist (can't remember his name either - this is going well) who declared that he knew of no gas which could have this effect.

His argument, quite well-reasoned, was that unless you broke into the caravan and supplied a measured dose to each occupant in turn, there is no way you could reliably knock them out without risking brain injury or death. Moreover, if a would-be thief fed the gas in through a window or vent, he would then have to fill the entire van, requiring a huge amount of expensive gas, and it would be nigh-on impossible to ensure an effective but non-lethal dose. He cited the Beslan theatre siege as a prime example of how this method could go horribly wrong.

In summary, he declared that whatever was going on here (and it certainly seems to be something), it was no anaesthetic known to medical science, and that he and his colleagues have been looking for something this effective for the last 150 years!

I'll look up his name, because he seemed to know what he was about.

This isn't it, but here is a letter on the forum of ukcamapsite.co.uk :
"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
 
?

Edit: I was wondering about the relative (expensive) costs of the gas and method of delivery offset against the uncertain profits from such petty robberies. Shades of Mattoon here methinks?

Mad gasser of Mattoon thread HEREfor anyone unfamiliar with it.
 
Sorry this is a bit vague (and I can't verify it through google) but I saw something on TV about this a year or so ago. It showed an interview with a couple who had been gassed and robbed whilst holidaying in Spain. I remember them saying the Spanish police were aware of the problem and were blaming gangs of East European immigrants.

This does at least suggest it's a real 'problem' (and not, it seems, new).

EDIT:(Actually the more I think about this the more the whole thing sounds like urban legend :D )
 
drbastard said:
Sorry this is a bit vague (and I can't verify it through google) but I saw something on TV about this a year or so ago. It showed an interview with a couple who had been gassed and robbed whilst holidaying in Spain. I remember them saying the Spanish police were aware of the problem and were blaming gangs of East European immigrants.

..
Was it this story, from last year?
Pietro_Mercurios said:
...

And here's a similiar story from Spain, last year.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/north_east/5277366.stm
 
Isn't it more likely (and easier for the criminals) to rob someone in a deep sleep than to go to the trouble of gassing them first? How many caravans are robbed in a "normal" way every year after all? Otherwise I'm picturing anaesthetists on the rampage.
 
I am deeply suspicious of this alleged modus operandi.

I find it far more easy to believe that there were some embarrassing attendant circumstances to a conventional crime, than that there are rogue anaesthetists on the loose.

A family man who can say, "I was gassed then robbed" will garner sympathy.

A family man who (more honestly) says, "I picked up a rent boy while cottaging. We got drunk. I fell into a stupor and he stole my cash and watch" won't be treated with as much consideration.

Celebrity victims of this (alleged) MO were Trinny Woodall and Susannah Constantine of What Not To Wear fame. They are supposed to have been victimised in a friend's villa in France while attending the 2002 Cannes film festival:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinny_Woodall

maximus otter
 
Peripart said:
...the Beslan theatre siege...

"The hostage taking took place at the Theatrical Center (TC) of State Ball-Bearing Plant Number 1, a Moscow theatre named after its former owner, in the Dubrovka area of Moscow. During Act II of a sold-out performance of Nord-Ost, some 42 heavily-armed men and women entered the theatre and took approximately 850 audience members and performers hostage."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_the ... age_crisis

maximus otter
 
Gassing tourists

Lets try to remember it's still the "Silly Season"! The media will seize on any story that makes good copy, regardless of facts! remember the "great white shark" off Newquay :?:
 
Re: ?

mrpoultice said:
Edit: I was wondering about the relative (expensive) costs of the gas and method of delivery offset against the uncertain profits from such petty robberies. Shades of Mattoon here methinks?

Mad gasser of Mattoon thread HEREfor anyone unfamiliar with it.

Dr. T. Peter Park made the same suggestion last week.

As I replied to him: "Now THAT'S what we really needed - Fortean-savy felons!" <g>
 
Peripart said:
When this story broke last week, BBC radio....brought on a leading anaesthetist....who declared that....unless you broke into the caravan and supplied a measured dose to each occupant in turn, there is no way you could reliably knock them out without risking brain injury or death. Moreover, if a would-be thief fed the gas in through a window or vent, he would then have to fill the entire van, requiring a huge amount of expensive gas, and it would be nigh-on impossible to ensure an effective but non-lethal dose.

I'm certainly no anesthiosologist, but that's exactly what bothered me when I first read this news last week. The original article stated that the sleep-inducing gas utilized was potent but "harmless."

There simply ain't no such animal!

If any such gas existed anesthiosology wouldn't be such a highly-skilled and highly-paid speciality.
 
maximus_otter said:
Peripart said:
...the Beslan theatre siege...
"The hostage taking took place at the Theatrical Center (TC) of State Ball-Bearing Plant Number 1, a Moscow theatre named after its former owner...
maximus otter
I was, of course, confusing the theatre siege with the school siege in Beslan. Apologies, and thanks for letting everyone know I'm such a twit!

Other than that, I stand by my post (until someone else corrects me, anyhow).

One wonders if the victims were simply befriended in the evenings by the would-be thieves, who then proceeded to get them steaming drunk before robbing them. It would explain the woozy heads, at least!
 
This is a variation on the old 'train carriages filled with sleep-inducing gas and passengers then robbed' UL.

The daughter of a prominent Irish politician told me, over 20 years ago, that this happened in France to her and her party.

I thought b*ll*cks then and I still think b*ll*cks now. :D
 
Oh yes, of course. A subject or incident may be b*ll*cks AND Fortean. The two are not mutually exclusive. Just the opposite, in fact, much of the time. :D
 
escargot1 said:
Oh yes, of course. A subject or incident may be b*ll*cks AND Fortean. The two are not mutually exclusive. Just the opposite, in fact, much of the time. :D
You might say that, but I'm afraid that I couldn't possibly comment. :)
 
If there is any truth in this story I would guess the gas is Nitrous Oxide

Its a weak general anesthetic which is readily available as its used in motor racing and the food industry and the sale of it is not regulated.

So if these guys were able to steal some, so the cost wasn't an issue, maybe they could flood a small caravan.
 
Ahhhhhhh, the camper van fuel/foul drainage external access fitting confusion UL looms. 8)
 
i've heard (and this could be a bullshit story in itself) of hells angels nabbing not quite empty nitrous oxide canisters from the skips at the back of abortion clinics... i'm not sure that it would necessarily work better in this context than some other anaesthetics - certainly it carries much the same risk of asphyxiation...
 
It would be abortion clinics, of course. Makes it all that much more satisfyingly wicked. :lol:
 
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