The witness just has time to take a photo of the back suspects and report abnormal behavior to the victims, a Franco-Canadian couple who are about to go back to Vancouver. But too late: jewelry for a value of almost 350,000 euros have disappeared from the Vuitton bag in which they were transported. And the suspects too, volatilized when stopping the train in Avignon TGV.
As soon as the flight is reported, then a complaint filed by the victims when they arrived in Paris, police officers from the Marseille transport service (SISTC) embarked on the examination of the videos of the station surveillance cameras, helped by the photo of the flight witness. Well dressed, the thief seems to work in one direction and in the other in the TGV, Amount without first class ticket To spot his prey.
SISTC agents, reputed to be physiognomists, also immerse themselves in the archives, in search of similar facts, in order to find possible people already identified. And indeed, a 27 -year -old man, Coming from the Travelers Community And domiciled in Châteauneuf-les-Martigues, fits perfectly with reporting. Its trace is also found in Avignon, where the tattoo still allows it to be followed.
Prosecuted to Agde and intercepted in the toll
But after several days of hunting, while witnesses and victim formally recognize having crossed this man, already involved in similar cases, the Marseille police learn that their suspect is preparing to go west. Still in flagrance, on July 31, the SISTC crew immediately launched on the highway, dreading a leak, They make several ways of a toll in Agde In order to slow down traffic and catch up with the car, which is ultimately intercepted by the gendarmes.
The suspect and his partner, who ensure that they were going on vacation with their three children, are arrested. The man is finally brought back to Marseille, entrusted in police custody to the police of the group “Vol Violence” of the North Division. The searches do not allow you to find the jewelry, but during the hearings, the investigators fell their cards and the young man has little choice but to confess. He was on this train, with a young woman still unidentified. And it was he who was surprised searching in the affairs of the Franco-Canadian couple. But, he assures, the bag was empty …
Defered on Saturday at the Aix-en-Provence judicial court, the man must be presented this Monday afternoon August 4 in immediate appearance in order to be tried for acts of aggravated theft, confirms, this August 4, the prosecutor of Aix-en-Provence, Jean-Luc Blachon, specifying that the loot was not found.