Christmas hijacks start with a double
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• by Sally Nash A spate of violent attacks on drivers and loads suggest that the traditional pre-Christmas truck hijacking season has started early this year.
In one incident hijackers escaped with spirits worth £130,000 after the same truck was attacked for the second time in two weeks. The R-registered white Leyland Daf was parked at the southbound Southwalte Services on the M6 near Carlisle when the raiders struck, ordering the driver from his vehicle at gunpoint. He was made to hand over his keys and then bundled with a hood over his head into a white van. The robbers held the driver for five hours before dumping him unharmed in the North-East.
His truck, minus its load of Vladivar vodka and Whyte & Mackay whisky, was found the next day at Stainmore, a few miles from the scene of the robbery.
Cumbria police say the raid was almost identical to an earlier attack on the same truck, which is owned by Lancashirebased Allen Munro Transport.
In that incident, in Ashford. Middlesex, the driver was kidnapped and tied up with a bag over his head. The thieves escaped with thousands of pounds worth of Hensol computer monitors.
The driver who managed to free himself after 12 hours and got another truck driver to raise the alarm.