Beware of BURGLARS

[Tony F Dordogne]

Hi folks

Bumped into somebody I vaguely know in St Cyprien market this morning.  She and husbands are Brits, locked their place up a couple of weeks ago and when they returned it was empty, stripped by burglars (took everything, fridge freezers, furniture, the lot) who apparently got initial access by squeezing through burglar bars.  Must have taken ages, at least several hours to do.

The house is on a fairly busy road and on a well used junction.  The people concerned had locked everything up, all shuttered but it's a big house, open to public view and when you drive past it and it's empty and shuttered, it looks empty if you see what I mean.  And although in open view, the house is fairly isolated in that it has no houses close by so anybody coming or going may not have looked suspicious to the casual observer.

According to the G men, it's one of a string of similar thefts that have occured in the St Cyprien area of 24 over the past short while.

Leaving aside what you may think about the scrotes that did this, it's just a word of caution for people who may be going away, to have friends/neighbours swing by regularly to check your house out. 

[Cassis]

Would there be any point in telling the G-men if you're going away?  Or would they think you were mad?  I only ask because around here they don't seem to have a lot else to do so they may as well drop by once in a while and make themselves useful, unless such a request is strictly OOTQ.

[Christine Animal]

I have heard that they do it in broad daylight when it seems the least suspicious.  After all, les anglais could easily have a removal van.  It could also have been a child who got in between the bars.

You have to do it for the insurance, but shutting the shutters just shows there's noone there. How awful for the people.

 

[Clair]

[quote user="Cassis"]Would there be any point in telling the G-men if you're going away?  Or would they think you were mad?  I only ask because around here they don't seem to have a lot else to do so they may as well drop by once in a while and make themselves useful, unless such a request is strictly OOTQ.[/quote]

I think it's wise to let them know, as well as neighbours you get on well with...

Some friends went away for a week or so over the Christmas-New Year period. An elderly relative of theirs who didn't know or had forgotten could not get them on the house phone, so called the local gendarmes, telling them something dreadful must have happened.

The whole gendarmerie turned up at the house in all their cars an wagons, only to be told by the neighbour that they were due back the following day... We reckon they were keen to see the English house...!

My friends went over to the station a few days later with a big box of chocolates as a thank you![:D]

[Hoddy]

"It could also have been a child who got in between the bars."

Yes, indeed.

That's just reminded me that I once caught one of my pupils writing a letter to his father explaining that the friend he wanted to bring to stay for the weekend was small and could squeeze through a slightly open window.

Must be an awful shock to have your house emptied while you're away. It's something I dread.

Hoddy

[Tony F Dordogne]

Send me the address Hoddy and I'll go check it for you if you want me to - going to Sarlat at least twice this week and have to go every week so it's not really out of my way.

And the word is that it was a child that got through the bars and it was done in daylight - one of the problems is likely to be that although people saw them, as somebody mentioned, could have been the migratory Brit syndrome.

[Hoddy]

Thanks for the kind offer, Tony. I've PMed you.

Hoddy