New take on burning cd's
by DireStraitJacket 3 Replies latest jw friends
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Big Tex
The link doesn't work
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chappy
oops
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Elsewhere
I'd have to look into this more before I would believe it. They first thing that comes to mind is: Why doesn't the gas knock out the robbers? They would have to air out the whole house before they could safely enter... and I double that theives in africa can afford gas-masks.
http://www.dailynews.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=499&fArticleId=2144186
CDs are a knockout By Bhavna Sookha
Everyone knows about "burning" a CD - computer jargon for copying (burning) music on to a blank compact disc.
Now enterprising thieves in Durban have taken the process one step further and are setting fire to ordinary CDs to create knockout smoke that poleaxes their victims, leaving the robbers free to ransack homes while the occupants are unconscious.
Bizarre, perhaps. Unbelievable, even. But police in KwaMashu say the CD weapon is for real and have warned residents to make sure that their properties are securely locked before they go to sleep.
There has been a spate of housebreakings in the area recently, and police say some sort of substance is burned to make the occupants sleep soundly throughout the entire robbery.
One victim, S'khumbuzo Qwabe, says his home has been broken into three times. In the most recent intrusion, he says he woke up to an empty house.
"They took everything - all my electrical appliances, my sound system, clothing; they even made off with my children's schoolbooks."
Qwabe says he was especially puzzled by two aspects of the robbery: the fact that neither he nor any member of his family heard a thing throughout the entire incident, and the fact that he discovered the remains of a burnt CD inside his house.
According to police Insp Velaphi Zulu, the CD trick seems to be the criminals' latest modus operandi for housebreakings.
"Apparently the smoke of the CD knocks you out and you sleep while your house is being ransacked. Several of the victims we've spoken to complained about weird smells when they woke up the next day."
In one astonishing, but unconfirmed, incident, residents say two separate women victims awoke to find themselves in different bedrooms the next morning. Apparently the robbers pulled the stunt as a sick joke.
Said one resident: "I've heard of wife-swapping, but this is ridiculous."
In another recent burglary, electrical appliances valued at almost R10 000 were stolen from a home in K-Section.
Says Zulu: "The owner of the house said he clearly remembered locking all the doors and windows before he went to sleep. When he woke up the next morning, his belongings were gone, yet he slept throughout the burglary".
The sizzling CD ploy is an interesting hi-tech twist to a method popular with burglars some time ago.
In the earlier cases, they used strands of hair from a hyena's tail. When burned, the hair gave off a thick smoke that was reported to make victims fall into a deep sleep.
q Scientists and sound engineers said a number of different substances go into the making of a CD. To have a toxic or knockout effect when burnt, much would depend on what different CD manufacturers had used as a filler.
Published on the web by Daily News on July 9, 2004.