Just a warning to anyone travelling on the AP7, we had some guests booked in for this week who never arrived.We have just learned that they were held up at gun-point on the AP7 and robbed of all their possessions. Our guests, with children in the car were so traumatised, they turned around and went home.  According to the police, there have been 14 other similar robberies, all on the AP7 recently. The robbers pull along side and point to a rear tyre shouting "fire", so once pulled over they then pull a gun out and take everthing. Robbers are south Americans we believe. If we find out what make/model of car they use i'll post on here.

Do you have any idea what area they were in when stopped?

Thats absolutely awful and at Gunpoint!!

They must have been terrified!!

Its a shame the Police can't catch them with all the busy work they are doing making sure there is not too much crap in a dog kennel and stopping lorry drivers on the C12

Goes to show you should never stop for anyone on that AP7 put your foot down I say better to be stopped for speeding than for a mugging

I seem to recall there is an english contact number for the police, it was posted on the forum but I can't find it !!

Is it 112?

Just a little more info we managed to get,  the car type and model still unknown,  they managed to get the number plate but when checked on the police computer the number did not exist. It happened just south of Barcelona, they had just switched to his wife driving as he was very tired, and according to the police, the robbers target women drivers as they are easier to frighten into stopping.
Can you imagine how terrified his children must have been?
They will live with this memory for a long time.
There is a lot more crime round here than we ever thought is'nt there?

Maybe these bandits saw how the policia work on the AP7, after our last visit to Aldover we were driving back to the UK Via France and were north of Barcelona when an unmarked car with 4 men in it drove up along side of our van, one of the men in the front passenger seat put an ID type card up to the window with the word POLICIA on it and pointed to the slip road, he went off in front and we followed.
We came to the car and stopped behind it, the front seat passenger got out of the car and came to me on the drivers side of our van, a back set passenger got out of the car and stood menacingly infront of the van with his gun , although not drawn, in full view.
We were asked for our passports, where we had been, where we were going and why, what money we had, we showed them what little cash we were carrying he said no 'more monies', we told him we had no more, 'I look in the bag' he said refering to the handbag and rifled through it, meanwhile the man with the pistol had opened the side door of the van and was looking in the back (which was empty), we were then asked if we had any drugs, he looked through my wallet again and emptied it on the seat. Having satisfied himself that we had nothing he just said 'Gracias, be careful' and they both got back in the car and it sped away and they were gone.
All of this happened in the space of a few minutes and it took us 10 minutes to put everything back together and to decide that we hadn't been robbed but we did talk about it afterwards and said how easy it would have been for it to have been a robbery because we handed over our wallet and purse, with cash and credit cards in, passports and everthing. We believe that they were the Policia, we wern't robbed but how easily we could have been.
Next time we wont offer everything up so easily

Hazlenut,
Allthough there is a number that is advertised as being manned by English speaking Police,in reality when I had to ring it,after we where mugged,they only spoke Catalan !

Mottslott,, I think these were the robbers and that you were very lucky. I think the best thing to do would be to acknowledge them , but to drive on to the next filling station and stop outside the main building, or right in front of the fuel pumps where there may be security cameras. If they don't follow you in they are not the police!

wrote on Jul 20^th, 2010 at 10:12am:

Mottslott,, I think these were the robbers and that you were very lucky. I think the best thing to do would be to acknowledge them , but to drive on to the next filling station and stop outside the main building, or right in front of the fuel pumps where there may be security cameras. If they don't follow you in they are not the police!

good advice chris,remember baz and debs going back to the uk in nov someone pulled a gun on them in the same area of the AP7 and shot at them because they wouldn't pull over  >:(where are the cops when you need them?

4 blokes in a car dressed like Mossos (I meant the Blokes not the car) you would have thought that with 14 instances recently the polis might have stopped them by now!!

Or are they too busy having a f*g at the Payages and stopping easy targets like people taking fags and booze back to the UK !!

Friends of ours were recently robbed...same area A 7 but  they didn't see any gun...Two women ( victims ) driving a brit reg car .They had just left a service area. Haven't the police got any  numberplate recognition equipment as it seems too easy for the bandits to drive around with false plates and guns. I think they could easily catch them if they tried.

We were amazed the other week flying in past midnight, we stopped at the services at Hospitalet around 2.30AM ,  there were dozens of familys sleeping on the pavement outside there cars in the car park ,I am now wondering if it was all about safety in numbers? :-?

I think you'll find they were Moroccans travelling south from France and Belgium for their annual hols.  Cooler and more comfortable sleeping outside than in their vehicles.

Probably less smelly as well!!  ;) ;) ;)

You cant beat a good bit of fresh air!!

Yes they all did have a Ali Barber air to them ;)

May be that is why they call the rest areas Aires!! ::)

Anyone got any relevant information or SENSIBLE advice on dealing with this serious and increasing problem ?

Yes, this is very worrying but I suppose the advice would be the same as here in the UK. Do not stop if you believe the car in question is NOT a Police car. Do not gesticulate or do anything that could further incite them. Try to get to the nearest garage or busy place if you need to pull over. Always report such incidents to the Police as soon as you can. If you are caught out and they have guns, remember goods can be replaced but not lives, it isn't worth fighting back.
Car jackers will roam roads close to airports where they target tourists straight off the plane in hire cars, or possibly motorways across the border where they target those with foreign plates, of course British cars stand out a mile as wheel is on the right!

Try not to carry large amounts of cash, you can still get travellers cheques or top up cards to carry cash.

I would suggest that the family who were robbed contact the British Embassy in the UK to report what has happened and ask that they speak to the Embassy in Barcelona ro reley concerns about tourists being targetted in this way.

Spain need to take responsibility for this and do more to prevent this sort of crime.

wrote on Jul 21^st, 2010 at 9:45am:

Anyone got any relevant information or SENSIBLE advice on dealing with this serious and increasing problem ?

Buy yourself a paint ball gun an pepper their car with multi coloured paint that should be clear enough for the Spanish police to notice!!

But on a more serious note if they target Female drivers Don't let the wife take over round Barcelona on the AP7.

Or better still don't use the AP7 use inland roads from the Pyrenees through places like LLeida

You know they are going to target Foreign Cars because they expect you have all your Holiday Travel Money with you and credit cards and Passports