Anyone remember the thread in which the OP claimed that after a long flight, he and his wife slept longer than usual, so robbers must have gassed their hotel room. (Though nothing was taken.) We also had a couple of other threads in which people asked about this practice.
Apparently, it happened to Jenson Button. Though the details are vague—they woke up “groggy,” but couldn’t that be from a late night or alcohol? The article made it seem as though lots of gas-happy burglars are running around, but I’m still a bit skeptical. Still, at least this couple has some evidence, unlike our OP.
In the Jensen Button case, if true, the gassing was done to facilitate a robbery. Welltravelled never expressed any sort of motive for someone to gas him and his partner, and they were admittedly sleep deprived at the time of the alleged gassing. I’m going with possible in the new case, just tired in the old one.
Possibility 1: There are burglars out there who have access to unlimited quantities of an unknown-to-science gas that can be pumped into an air-conditioning system, and that will automatically reach the perfect concentration throughout the house to sedate people without ever killing them and without ever showing up in their systems the next day. In medical settings, you need a trained anaesthetist right at the patient’s side to accomplish that…but these genius burglars can manage it with just an air-conditioning system, and without ever leaving a trace.
Possibility 2: They were tired and/or drunk and/or sound sleepers, and the burglars were quiet.
As far as I can see in that article, there are plenty of ‘sources!!!’ saying that the police say there was gas involved…but no one from the police saying there was gas involved.
If such a gas does not exist it certainly decreases the likelihood of this happening. This article claims that it couldn’t happen, but then goes to cite cases where it is believed to have happened, along with other cases not declared one way or another. So I feel comfortable saying this either happened or it didn’t, and it’s either possible or it isn’t. And I’m going to stick to that.
If such a magical knock-out gas actually exists and is routinely used by criminals, you’d think the police would also be using it to defuse hostage situations and the like. But the only time authorities used gas to end a siege was the Dubrovka Theater Crisis, which unfortunately had the side effect of killing most of the hostages. :eek:
That case was my first thought. It wasn’t most of the hostages though. The wiki page puts it about 15% along with 100% of the hostage takers. I’d suspect that the cause of death for the hostage takers had more to do with cranially injected lead poisoning than the gas. Most hostages required medical treatment though. That piece really highlights the mystery gas that supposedly is almost side effect free employed by common burglars who never screw up and over/under gas their targets.
I have no idea if such a gas exists but if the victims are already asleep only enough is needed to keep them from stirring while their rooms are being ransacked. It still seems like a lot of trouble, the robbers have to wear respirators so they don’t fall asleep.
The stories are just weird. How many people get robbed like that while they sleep? If it’s common then there’s no need to speculate on gas, and maybe it just is an excuse to file phony insurance claims.
eclectic wench is right…the reason anesthesiologists spend a decade in school is that it’s really, really hard to make someone sleep without actually killing them. The odds of a random criminal being able to do that simply with some sort of gas is essentially zero. I think if an anesthetic agent was involved, it was almost certainly alcohol, and ingested quite willingly by the ‘victims’ themselves.
I’m pretty sure Jenson Button is doing well enough to not need to pull a fake insurance scam. However, I’ve also read he drinks heavily. So although it’s probably likely he overdid it the night before, is it perhaps possible they got intentionally Cosbied?
One of my favorite bits of Forteana. I once drove through Mattoon, IL on a trip and stopped so I could take a picture of the “Welcome To Mattoon” sign.
