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.

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?

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

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!

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 !!

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?

Probably less smelly as well!! 

You cant beat a good bit of fresh air!!

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