Burglars Using Sleeping Gas

[Daffy D]

We live in a quiet local neighborhood, I'm the only Farang for miles, no fancy villa type Farang houses round here, never had a problem with crime.

Recently there have been a series of burglaries, victims say they slept through it all, didn't hear a thing, one lady even had a gold clip thing taken from her hair while she slept.

Round here the "houses" are mostly just one bedroom affairs and some just tin shacks, how low can thieves go but guess it's no worse than mugging someone for their pension money.

The general feeling is that the thieves squirted some sort of knock-out gas into the room before breaking in through the roof.

Over the years I have heard about many instances of knock-out gas being use in robberies but never had any real evidence.

I remember long time ago when I first was in LOS I did a lot of traveling around mainly on buses. One time on an overnight bus fro BKK to Surat I had the best sleep ever and felt real good on arrival. It was not till later that I discovered that some money was missing from my bum bag. I cannot be sure that the money disappeared while on the bus but I normally check everything before a journey and am sure I had the money before boarding the bus, that combined with having had a really good sleep does make me suspicious. How someone could gas a whole bus load of passengers without the driver getting affected is a mystery but TIT so who knows.

So the question remains do thieves use knock-out gas or is it just an urban myth?

[gpdjohn]

Bullshit.

Complete and utter bullshit.

[BigSnake]

Bullshit.

Complete and utter bullshit.

In THIS case Bull SHIT, I don't know, but I do know for a fact that this does happen, dear and close friend had it happen to him, four dead dogs, wife, my friend and to kids slept did hear a thing. No this is no Urban Myth, it does happen often(?)

[sanook2me]

Bullshit.

Complete and utter bullshit.

In THIS case Bull SHIT, I don't know, but I do know for a fact that this does happen, dear and close friend had it happen to him, four dead dogs, wife, my friend and to kids slept did hear a thing. No this is no Urban Myth, it does happen often(?)

4 dead dogs! you'd like to think you were safe with 4 yappy scoobies around ya...

OP...wasn't there a long post on here recently about a similar situation and how best to arm, prepare and defend your home against Thai thugs/burglars/rascals..

pay for biB to visit once a night?

dogs

security lights

these were the main sensible ideas i seem to remember....

[ukrules]

There are gasses that can be used, but they are dangerous and can easily kill people. Think back to the Russian hostage situation a few years ago, they pumped this gas into the building and lots of the hostages died in the rescue process due to gas poisoning.

This link explains the incident - hundreds died : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_theater_hostage_crisis

So it can be done

[isanb]

It can happen usually in the best case they use nitrous oxyde (N2O) that they steal in

hospitals.

In the worst case they use CO, CO2 (can be deadly).

If you really scare about that, just buy a gas detector it will cost you around 80 euros (ebay).

[syd barrett]

It is true.

In Nigeria burglars get a few compact discs and pour a liquid (name withheld for obvious reasons) and this breaks down the CD plastics and produces a sleeping gas that will knock out even an elephant for several hours.

[F1fanatic]

Excuse me, how on earth did it kill 4 dogs, but the people were fine the next day!!

Heard the same story myself.

Urban myth.

[F1fanatic]

Plus - how do these ordinary thieves obtain whatever gas it is necessary to knock out people without killing them?

When I first heard the story (and warnings) I wondered about it, but have since theorised that the idea is so stupid its not worth wondering about.

[isanb]

Excuse me, how on earth did it kill 4 dogs, but the people were fine the next day!!

Heard the same story myself.

Urban myth.

usually dogs stay outside, so a bit of poisoned meat work great on them.

[F1fanatic]

Excuse me, how on earth did it kill 4 dogs, but the people were fine the next day!!

Heard the same story myself.

Urban myth.

usually dogs stay outside, so a bit of poisoned meat work great on them.

But do you honestly think that an ordinary thief can lay their hands on a gas that will knock people out without killing them???

[isanb]

Excuse me, how on earth did it kill 4 dogs, but the people were fine the next day!!

Heard the same story myself.

Urban myth.

usually dogs stay outside, so a bit of poisoned meat work great on them.

But do you honestly think that an ordinary thief can lay their hands on a gas that will knock people out without killing them???

Just go in the first hospital,the first dental surgery center you will find nitrous oxyde.

Some people use it also to boost the car engine or in the food industry (whipping cream).

really easy to find

[Mai Krap]

The basic problem here is most of these gasses will cost more to buy than what will be stolen. I have often wondered if the military has some knockout gas that is being stolen from the barracks and used on civilians during robberies. Most of the stories I have heard involved people sleeping in air-conditioned rooms with the doors and windows closed. They slip a tube under the door and release the gas supposedly. If you do not have air conditioning, sleep with a fan and open windows its very unlikely you will be knocked out with any gas but its possible.

If this is a true story and I have been told it many many times. Anyone caught doing this should face a possible death sentence and life in prison for endangering the lives of their victims in such a way. Same goes for drugging people, I was drugged in the P.I. and having a good knowledge of medicines it was a very scary ordeal. Often the victims of these type crimes die and its just written off as a overdose or alcohol death, no big deal to local cops.

[F1fanatic]

O.K. Let's try to find someone who's actually had this happen to them.

We can argue about the likelihood of it being down to being 'gassed' then.

[Absingjul]

Seems more likely on a bus than in a home, but still plausible.

Beware sleeping gas gang, caravanners told

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

...

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."

[isanb]

The basic problem here is most of these gasses will cost more to buy than what will be stolen.

You think that a thief will buy these gasses

if you know where to look for, any thief can easily obtain these gasses for free.

I use to work in europe in for a major international producer and distributor of cryogenic liquids and gases

and this problem is well known.

we have been obliged to build a protected area in our warehouses for such gases (at low-dose the nitrous oxide gas is also an hilarant gas well know by the youth ).

Edited July 8, 2009 by isanb

[DP25]

It's a complete myth. There has never been a documented case of blood work done on someone to prove that "sleeping gas" was used on them while being robbed. No one is able to chemically describe exactly what this gas would be. The one attempted use of a knockout gas by the Russian military resulted in hundreds of people dead, knockout gas as described in urban legends simply is not scientifically possible.

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

"Sleeping gas is a fictional oneirogenic gas described in books and films. In these works of fiction, sleeping gas induces a deep delta sleep. Most of the time, it is used by a character to incapacitate another character or characters. In some cases, science fiction or fantasy films depict the use of large quantities of sleeping gas to put large numbers of people to sleep.

There are urban legends of thieves spraying sleeping gases on campers, or in train compartments in some parts of Europe. Alarms are sold to detect and alert to such attacks, so a potential risk is believed by some people."

[DP25]

These 'warnings' that have been issued are based solely on self reports by be people claiming to have been gassed (in reality most are drunk), and are passing on the warning without any testing or verification.

[isanb]

<H3 style="MARGIN: auto 0cm">Wiki also

In medicine</H3>Nitrous oxide has been used for anesthesia in dentistry since the 1800s. The most common use is as a 50:50 mix with oxygen, commonly known as Entonox or Nitronox delivered through a demand valve, and frequently used to relieve pain associated with childbirth, trauma and heart attacks.

Nitrous oxide is a weak general anesthetic, and so is generally not used alone in general anesthesia. In general anesthesia it is used as a carrier gas in a 2:1 ratio with oxygen for more powerful general anesthetic agents such as sevoflurane or desflurane. It has a MAC (minimum alveolar concentration) of 105% and a blood:gas partition coefficient of 0.46. Less than 0.004% is metabolised in humans.

Edited July 8, 2009 by isanb

[cdnvic]

People are so gullible. No wonder the sick buffalo stories work so often.

[sanook2me]

These 'warnings' that have been issued are based solely on self reports by be people claiming to have been gassed (in reality most are drunk), and are passing on the warning without any testing or verification.

Agree on this point...A few years ago a group of us were falling around Sulhumvit drunk and one man in the group was more drunk than rest of us ...(he happens to be one of my best drinking buddies here so i know his behaviour from tee total to smashed) but this ozzie guy with us was adamant my mate had been drugged!

Then we had a row because i knew my mate was just p1ssed but this ozzie wouldn't back down from his drugged theory.

Next day talking about the night before my mate was yeah i was smashed i was drinking whisky before i went out!

But to this day the ozzie will still talk about my mate was drugged in sukhumvit !

[samran]

a friend of mine travelling through poland years ago had this happen to her. Basically everyone in the carriage fell asleep during a day journey, and when they woke, all passports, money and other valuables had been taken. She said that carriage was filled with a gas which made them all doze off.

[Daffy D]

So the jury is still out on this one

I don't see any problem for a local (or Farang) getting hold of gas. Drugs in drinks has been well documented and I think it is agreed that the country is awash with guns and just about anything is readily available so why should knock out gas be any more difficult to get hold of.

As for blood work to check for gas I would guess unless you rush to a laboratory almost immediately there would be little evidence left to find.

So the question remains bullshite or urban myth or myth confirmed ?

[churchill]

on themselves ?

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Burglar-Slee...ob-t278110.html

[cdnvic]

So the question remains bullshite or urban myth or myth confirmed ?

I'd say that due to there not being one single proven incident of this happening anywhere in the world, it's either myth, or too rare to worry about.

[cbuddha]

I know a member of this forum who had this happen to him up here in Issan. I believed him when I heard it; there's no reason to lie about something like this. If anything, it might be kind of embarrassing to admit that you got robbed and could do nothing about it. I'll point him to this thread and maybe he'll tell you all what happened.