A reader recounts their own dramatic experience of the day last December when they were robbed on a French autoroute.

Their story follows an article we published last November on the arrest of 40 members of a gang believed to be involved in a spate of robberies on autoroutes in the South of France.

John Lloyd and his wife Liz have a holiday home in the French Alps and regularly travel on the A39 near Dijon in Burgundy.

John recounts their story:

‘On this particular day my wife and I experienced a rear tyre blow out on our Freelander, about 2 kms south of the Aire du Jura Services on the A39, after a midday coffee stop in the cafeteria there.

We had just finished changing the wheel when a car drew up and stopped diagonally in front of us on the hard shoulder.

Our first thoughts were that it was an unmarked police car or someone offering help.

However the largish middle aged man who emerged was waving a road map and apparently seeking directions in a somewhat agitated manner, gabbling away in what sounded like an east European language.

By dancing around at the rear of our car and making a big thing with the map, we realised only afterwards that he had managed to manoeuvre us into a position where we were standing with our backs to the rear of our car and his.

After we made it clear that we could not help and had other matters to attend to, he returned to his car which left at speed with a screech of tyres.

Only then did it dawn that we had been duped and that my wife's hand bag was missing from between the front seats.

We console ourselves with the thought that, had we spotted the accomplice and tried to prevent the theft, things could have turned much nastier.

Four brand new tyres had been fitted the day before our departure, so the blow out and robbery seem too much of a coincidence to be unconnected.

Our main residual concern is that these people are prepared to damage tyres and put a vehicle's occupants and others on the road at mortal risk just to facilitate their thieving. It makes the average sneaky pickpocket look positively civilised.

Of the more obvious precautions - keeping the car locked when we are working outside it (not easy when a heap of luggage has to be removed to get at the spare wheel!), keeping handy only those valuables essential on the journey (e.g. modest cash and possibly one card) and hiding all others around the vehicle to prevent a quick snatch, or even leaving a dummy purse or bag to be snatched -are unlikely to thwart the determined and potentially violent attacker.

Our foremost future plan is therefore to try to prevent such a crime at its likely source by never leaving the car unattended in any service area as well as avoiding completely those where we may find ourselves alone and away from public view.’