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gassed by raiders who stole the cargo of his lorry as he drove it through Spain.

Thursday, 26 May 2011



Frank Chown, 70, said he and his colleague Tony Davey, from the Chard area were transporting goods for a company in a contract with the Ministry of Defence.

The raid took place in a motorway services station north of Valencia. The pair remember having a meal there, but nothing else before waking up hours later to find their truck emptied.

Mr Chown believes the pair were targeted with a mystery gas that was pumped into the truck and rendered them unconscious.


He said: "When I came around everything was gone. Our hearts were out of rhythm and we couldn't talk. It was as if we had powder in our mouths.

"It was like we'd been given an anaesthetic. We were groggy and nauseous.

"A German driver came over to see what the problem was. By then we had got out of the vehicle and were just walking round in circles trying to figure out what happened.

"The man went into the service station and phoned the police."

Mr Chown said the contents taken from the truck were of high value but security concerns prevent him from disclosing what they were.

He and Mr Davey also lost almost all of their personal possessions. In Mr Chown's case this included a camera, laptop and phone among items worth £4,500.

Recalling the incident which took place between Friday and Saturday, May 6-7, he said: "All I was left with was the pair of jeans I had on, a shirt and a pair of shoes.

"We found a couple of large rocks, which were not in the truck before, presumably to knock us back out if we woke up for some reason."

Mr Chown wants to alert travellers to Spain about the raid method.

He said: "When we met someone with the Guardia Civil who could speak our language, we learned that this is a very common occurrence.

"We were told police and paramedics are called out to similar incidents every day.

"They often receive a call to say someone has noticed a vehicle in an area which has not been moved for a while and when they investigate they find someone inside dead.

"The thieves spray gas in the vehicle. It's either a very heavy anaesthetic or what they use to knock out large animals.

"Then they wait a couple of minutes and knock on the vehicle. If there is no response they know that the gas has worked."

"It is not a widely reported thing but apparently it happens regularly.

"I want to warn people about it. As an outsider I wouldn't have had a clue about it."

Mr Chown, a lifelong Crewkerne resident, is married to Michele and they live at Curriott Hill. They have three grown-up children and two grandchildren.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office recommends visiting its website www.fco.gov.uk for advice to travellers.

In a similar case recently reported, a British woman on a Spanish holiday claimed to have been gassed and raped while her husband lay unconscious next to her.

The 56-year-old mother of two was assaulted at an hotel in Benalmadena, on the Costa del Sol, after a mystery gas was pumped into their roof-top bedroom.

The pair from Greater Manchester, were near the end of their holiday when the attacker struck at the Hotel Siroco.

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