Interesting new criminal tactic

[MattCary]

Interesting new tactic in Europe:

'Sleeping gas' thieves target super-rich at Italian billionaires' resort | World news | The Guardian

[JAB]

Wow. Not sure how 'new' a tactic that is, however. My dad was a long haul truck driver for many years. Trucks with built in sleepers have (or at least had, back then) one or two little vents in the side that could be opened to allow air in. He told me once that he rarely opened those while he was sleeping because he was usually a solo driver and there had been reports of thieves gassing drivers through those vents so the driver wouldn't wake up while said thieves broke into the truck. This was back in the early to mid-1980s.

Edited September 1, 2011 by JAB

[MattCary]

Wow. Not sure how 'new' a tactic that is, however. My dad was a long haul truck driver for many years. Trucks with built in sleepers have (or at least had, back then) one or two little vents in the side that could be opened to allow air in. He told me once that he rarely opened those while he was sleeping because he was usually a solo driver and there had been reports of thieves gassing drivers through those vents so the driver wouldn't wake up while said thieves broke into the truck. This was back in the early to mid-1980s.

New to me I suppose... seems like it would take a lot of gas to gas a house or villa though.

[Guest nicemac]

This isn't new. I saw the Joker/ Riddler/ Penguin use sleeping gas on Batman lots of times…

[bigwakes]

This isn't new. I saw the Joker/ Riddler/ Penguin use sleeping gas on Batman lots of times…

Yep, same old tricks. I wonder if the robbers were wearing purple.

[MattCary]

So, everyone has equipment installed in their homes to automatically vent sleeping gas out so the bad guys can't use this tactic on you, and I'm just behind the times cause I didn't pay close enough attention to the Batman movies?

Don't know what I was thinking. Perhaps I should be paying more attention to the tabloids as well, like they did in "Men in Black."

What wasn't clear in the article is whether they are breaking in, and gassing the room that people are occupying, or gassing the entire structure before breaking in. If the latter, it seems like that would require a lot of equipment/volume of gas to accomplish. Gassing a hotel room or a tractor trailer cab is one thing, but this story is talking about a resort villa and "houses."