[csinc]

I have a weird story I wanted to see if anyone had ever heard of before. I was in Shenzhen yesterday waiting for my companies car to get me. The guy never came and never answered his phone, so ultimately I had to call for another car.

Everyone was really curious about this because even the manager in charge of cars could not find the guy. Ultimately he surfaced this afternoon and his excuse was that he smelled something that made him go crazy or knocked him out (translation by other chinese was not so great) and then he was robbed (or willing handed over his valuables to the robber because of the drug, again translation not so good).

I asked some Chinese co-workers about this they said this story is very common and they really believe it. They said even more common is you smell something strange then go him and automagically drive all your stuff to a robbers home.

This all sounds like BS to me from a guy who needed an excuse to miss work. Anyone ever hear of anything like this before?

-Adam

[hullexile]

I think you are right the only smell is of BS. Can't imagine the insurance companies paying out on that story. Honestly, this smell made me drive all my things to the robbers house. Yeah.

[greenietea]

it's like that mickey d's commercial where the guy was following the sausage egg muffin in his sleep, except a lot less convincing.

anyways, i've heard of people being drugged by ammonia and robbed, but the part about driving to the robbers house is just weird. and if there were such a secret crazy potion out there, why the hell would anyone drug a driver? that's like robbing a homeless guy with an ak47. ehh yah, or something like that. lol.

[jayinhongkong]

I don't know about ammonia, but people use ether and formaldehyde like this...there's no substance in the world that would force people to go home and drive all their stuff to someone else's place though (narcotic addiction might make someone do that, but it doesn't happen overnight..hehe).

[hullexile]

Originally Posted by jayinhongkong

I don't know about ammonia, but people use ether and formaldehyde like this...there's no substance in the world that would force people to go home and drive all their stuff to someone else's place though (narcotic addiction might make someone do that, but it doesn't happen overnight..hehe).

My ex-wife drove all her stuff to another person's house - her mother. Perhaps she was drugged

[Krad]

Originally Posted by jayinhongkong

I don't know about ammonia, but people use ether and formaldehyde like this...there's no substance in the world that would force people to go home and drive all their stuff to someone else's place though (narcotic addiction might make someone do that, but it doesn't happen overnight..hehe).

This is likely what actually happened, it's a pretty common tactic in China...slap a rag soaked in ether up against someone, or throw it in the window of a car, and then jack either the car or the person. Although, I guess in very very small dosages, ether would just make the person extremely relaxed and not exactly unconscious...

I have heard of some people that would inject sodium pentathol into people and then take them to an ATM and clear out their accounts...much rarer though, and all the cases I heard involved hypos and syringes, not smells...

[csinc]

Originally Posted by Krad

This is likely what actually happened, it's a pretty common tactic in China...slap a rag soaked in ether up against someone, or throw it in the window of a car, and then jack either the car or the person. Although, I guess in very very small dosages, ether would just make the person extremely relaxed and not exactly unconscious...

I have heard of some people that would inject sodium pentathol into people and then take them to an ATM and clear out their accounts...much rarer though, and all the cases I heard involved hypos and syringes, not smells...

I suppose he could have been hanging out with his windows open and someone threw some ether in the car. One of my Chinese co-workers said that all Chinese are children are told to watch out for dangerous smells so they don't do crazy stuff. Still sounds pretty funny to me. Although sometimes the smell of exhaust is real high in some of these cars. Maybe the guy got sick from that and then someone jacked him when they saw he was in trouble.

[jayinhongkong]

Hullexile: haha...yeah, maybe she was drugged

Carbon monoxide poisoning (like csinc described) can make you drowsy...

[z754103]

Can't comment on the crazy giving all your stuff to thieves part, but about 20 years ago, a HK taxi driver used to disperse some kind of gas in his taxi that would make his chosen (female) victim fall unconscious, so the basic concept of getting knocked out by some gas in a car does work.

[Mary Ann Sparro]

A friend of mine who's with the police force told me and my hubby something about these sort of drugs (I think it is the "date-rape" drug - don't quote me, I can't remember the exact one) that seems to be going around in Wanchai, especially in "Fenwicks".

Apparently, what happens is, the girls slip-in pills into the drinks man/men are drinking. They will then take these guys to an ATM where they automatically enter their pin number and give the girls "ALL" their cash that the machine will allow them to withdraw (apparently the girls take them to a lot of different ATMs).

The guys wake up in the morning thinking that they were robbed. The only evidence the police have got are these guys on the ATMs withdrawing money at odd hours of the morning via camera from ATM machines.

hmmmm.....