Robbery Foiled
Recently, we were travelling south on the AP7 around Valencia and stopped at a service station for diesel and a cup of coffee, when four men in a car parked blocking our exit from the parking slot. One got out and waved a tattered map at me ( Chas) and approached our door, mouthing for me to open up. I shook my head saying NO and produced our camera which I switched on. I then made a show of passing our mobile phone to my wife, Catherine ( to dial 112). At that point they knew that we knew that they were crooks. The big thug just stared at me in a pretty frightening way, daring me to take a photo, I presume. I was given menacing looks as they got back in the car and reversed back through the filling station, so we couldn't take their registration number, and sped off back onto the motorway.
We've heard about this sort of thing before and that had put us on our guard. Why would four Spaniards ask the way from Brits when they could ask in the filling station or the hotel having just come off the AP7 at exactly kilometre 517?
It was a ‘Mexican Stand-off’: if I had taken his photo he would have to have broken in to get my camera; if he left, I wouldn’t take his picture!
It’s worth noting that this happened on a section of the AP7 which is toll-free and has, therefore, lots of exits for fleeing villains.
Our Spanish really wasn’t up to reporting the threatened robbery, so we just carried on our journey. We heard later at Javea that another British couple had been taken in by the same ruse, and had been robbed of all their valuables.
My advice is to just to be on your gard. Spanish motorway service areas are patrolled regularly, but we didn’t see any that Sunday afternoon.
Comments
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Well done. We live here so try to put everyone, especially those with foreign plates, on their guard (mark you, it was far, far worse when we lived in Rio!). We always advise people in hire cars to tear off the Hire Company sticker for the same reasons.
May I have permission to copy your story to the members of ACE (Autos y Caravanas de España) please?
Barrie
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Thanks for that, we are currently planning our first trip abroad and intend to visit Spain, later this year.
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Well done. We live here so try to put everyone, especially those with foreign plates, on their guard (mark you, it was far, far worse when we lived in Rio!). We always advise people in hire cars to tear off the Hire Company sticker for the same reasons.
May I have permission to copy your story to the members of ACE (Autos y Caravanas de España) please?
Barrie
Write your comments here... Please do Barrie!
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We had a similar experience a few years ago while in Spain when we left Vilanova i Le Geltru (about 30 miles south of Barcelona) heading up towards Zaragova. The motorway was fairly quiet and we decided to call in to fuel up and found a nice picnic area
at the services to have a bite to eat and sat outside. We had only stopped about 10 minutes while munching our sandwiches a car pulled up and a man and lady got out claiming to be Irish they needed some cash to get home to England and wanted just enough to
make the Eurotunnel with a bit of fuel. Neither sounded Irish and looked more Spanish to me and the wife and alarm bells started ringing! The man offered us his laptop to keep so long as we could sign on to our bank and transfer some funds to his personal
account so he could draw some money from the ATM. Yeah-right!! I simply refused, said I didn't have online banking and asked him to leave. At that point the woman approached us and asked if we had any cash with us so I said no, we don't carry cash or keep
valuables while we are touring and only had enough fuel to get us back to Santander which was actually true as we had just about spent all the cash we had on us. They looked at eachother and wondered off towards the fuel station kiosk leaving their car parked
right in front of our motorhome even though there was plenty of room around the picnic area. We still sat eating and watched cautiously, they didn't go into the kiosk hanging around outside as if they were waitingt for another vehicle to roll up to the forecourt.
After a few minutes they hurried back to their car and sped off. Just at that point a Spanish police car came past in rather a speedy fashion and went straight back onto the motorway. Nothing lost but I did feel we had been targeted and felt a little numb.
After about half-an-hour, we made the move to continue our journey up towards Zaragova and only about 10 miles up the road there we saw a police car with the same said vehicle in front of it and as I passed by thought they must have been on the police wish
list. The whole experience was so casual that their story was almost believable apart from the fact that there is no way you would using that particular stretch of the motorway to get back up to Calaise as it's about 150 miles out of your way and anyone needing
fuel would be absolutely rediculous to be there in the first place. I put this one down to experience and now always keep a keen eye out for potential situations such as this so that I may weigh up the pros & cons so to speak a little quicker next time!! We
did have a fantastic holiday in Spain that year and have been back several times since and never had any other situations though have heard stories of others experiencing issues particularly in the small motorway rest areas where they are a little remote and
hardly any movement in them so we stick to large service areas whenever possible.0 -
Do take care out there. We were spending the night at a servicestation on the Spanish French border when thugs broke in and stole my daughter in laws bag with phone cash etc in it. It was very scary waking in the night to find a large man in the caravan.
Fortunately we were all unharmed. But we would never sleep on a service station again although this one was busy and well lit.0 -
a similar tale to my in-laws. they travel in a motorhome and use a lge ratchet strap to secure the front doors on overnight stops. i would advise a ladder lock on the rear ladder as my brother in-law pulled into a service station for fuel and caught a spaniard
climbing off his rear roof rack with some of his belongings from a roofbox. It was his first stop for over 150k so lord knows where or when he climbed on.0 -
We had a similar experience at the 'Catalan Village' service station just on the French side of the Spanish Border near Perpignan in January 2010.
My husband was driving our motorhome on our way to Valencia for the winter. I was following him in our French registered Renault Kangoo so that we would have a car available for our three months in Spain.
We had been warned about possible thefts around the Barcelona area so were being extra vigilant. We pulled into the service station for fuel for the motorhome. My husband was at the pump filling up and I pulled up outside the service station building as I said I would go in to pay. As I pulled up there were 3 men and 2 women standing outside the doors of the service station. They were dark skinned and looked either of Spanish or Eastern European extraction to the extent that one can tell. One of the men came over and stood directly in front of my car with a cup of coffee in his hand, staring through the windows. I got out and locked the car and went into the station to pay. He followed me into the shop. As I stood at the kiosk waiting to pay he came close up to me examining something on the counter as I was about to put my card number into the machine to pay for the fuel.
Fortunately, I follow the French practice of shielding the machine with my hand as I insert my number on the keypad so no-one else can see it. I left, and again the man followed me back to my car.
I am sure to this day that if he had seen the number, he or a colleague of his would have found some excuse to try and stop my car to steal my card and withdraw all the cash from my account.
We take our 3 dogs with us when we go to Spain for the winter and they travel in a dog cage in the back of the Kangoo. I always put my handbag with everything except my mobile phone, a bank card and minimal change into the dog crate under the dog blankets where it cannot be seen. I use a 'bumbag' around my waist to carry my phone and the change. At least that way I feel if stopped by thieves, it would take a brave thief to get past my dogs for my handbag...
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Whilst travelling from Valencia down to Alicante we met people who had fallen victim to gangs of callous pick pockets ,muggers etc , none of these were caravanning or motorhoming so be extra vigilant and don't carry more than 50 euros & wear expensive jewellery
as you will lose it.0 -
Glad to know you had your wits about you. We've had several similar incidents at filling stations/service areas along that route.
Just keep hitting the message out.
Phil and Liz
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