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‘Fake police’ steal €200,000 of jewellery from Paris retirees

Brazen thieves duped an elderly Paris couple into letting them into their apartment, where they then made an easy heist.

Published: 19 February 2016 10:54 CET
'Fake police' steal €200,000 of jewellery from Paris retirees
File pic. Photo: Naomi King/Flickr

The crime took place on Wednesday afternoon, when the couple were approached in the car park of their building, in the wealthy 16th arrondissement of Paris.

France Info reported that the criminals had managed to get hold of realistic police uniforms, and tricked the retired couple by telling them their apartment had been broken into. What the pensioners didn't realize was that the real burglary was about to take place.

In their panicked state of mind, the couple opened their apartment to let the ‘police’ assess the robbery, telling them where their jewellery and other valuables were kept.

By the time the pair had realized what was happening and had called the real police, the four burglars had fled.

It seems that thieves in France are getting increasingly inventive with their scams; last May, a luxury jewellers' in Cannes was robbed by a man wearing an old-man mask, and in February of the same year a stolen Picasso artwork was found after being sent to the US disguised as a €30 Christmas present.

On Tuesday, a British man was arrested in Mallorca for impersonating a police officer sent to investigate a “top secret case”.

Paris police are dealing with the enquiry.


 

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CRIME

French police search for gunmen after shootings in Paris suburb

French police were searching for gunmen after three people were killed in drug-related shootings in the Paris suburb of Sevran over the weekend.

Published: 6 May 2024 16:13 CEST
French police search for gunmen after shootings in Paris suburb

Two men were shot dead near a cultural centre in the Seine-Saint-Denis suburb, to the northeast of the French capital on Sunday evening, less than 48 hours after another fatal shooting nearby, according to authorities.

The victims of Sunday’s shooting were aged 35 and 31 and known for violence and drug trafficking, according to police sources.

One was shot in the head, with two suspects fleeing on foot, leaving the magazine of an automatic weapon and 18 spent bullet casings behind them.

The second man was hit six times.

The town of 52,000 people was on edge, mayor Stephane Blanchet told AFP, saying people were living in fear of another shooting.

“There is a huge feeling of fear, that it could start again and [that someone could be hit by] a stray bullet,” Blanchet said.

“If it had been a beautiful sunny day, there would have been more people outside,” when the latest shooting happened, he said.

In the first shooting, a 28-year-old man was killed on a nearby housing estate early on Saturday, with three others wounded.

In March, French President Emmanuel Macron announced an ‘XXL’ cleanup of drug trafficking in the southern port city of Marseille and other towns across France, including Sevran, where the drugs trade has been blamed for a spate of death and violence.

One drug dealing hotspot in Sevran was ‘eradicated’ in that operation, police said.

“We are aware that when we do that, we destabilise traffic, we create greed and sometimes there are clashes,” Paris police chief Laurent Nunez said on Sunday.

“But we will still continue,” he added.

Local La France insoumise MP Clementine Autain accused the government of abandoning some areas, and said the suburb, “did not have the police presence of other areas”.

Drug-related violence has often flared in Sevran – considered a hub of drug trafficking in France – with the then-mayor calling for UN peacekeepers to be deployed there in 2011.

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