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The key to a successful burglary? Try the French police
AFP/Yahoo ^ | Sat Nov 13, 3:06 PM ET

Posted on 11/14/2004 2:43:41 PM PST by martin_fierro

The key to a successful burglary? Try the French police

Sat Nov 13, 3:06 PM ET

PARIS (AFP) - A swindler posing as the owner of a jewelery store outside Paris managed to steal a set of luxury pens and watches with the unwitting help of local police and a locksmith, police said on Saturday.

Claiming to be the owner of a jewelery store a few blocks away, a 30-year-old man called in at the police station in Enghien-les-Bains, a small town northwest of Paris, at around midnight on Saturday last week.

The man, identified only as Yves, told the officers he had lost his keys and needed their help to get into the shop. They kindly obliged, calling in a locksmith to pry open the door.

The locksmith became suspicious, however, after the man reached for the shop's display counters, grabbing a handful of fountain pens and watches -- among them a Rolex.

He asked him for an ID, but the burglar said he had left his papers at the police station. He then fled the scene, carrying with him booty worth some 10,OOO euros (13,000 dollars).

Police caught up with the thief the following day, and recovered part of the loot from his home in a nearby town.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: france; imbeciles

Gendarme mauvaise. No butée torique.

1 posted on 11/14/2004 2:43:41 PM PST by martin_fierro
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To: Atlantic Friend

LOL!!


2 posted on 11/14/2004 2:45:39 PM PST by shaggy eel
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To: martin_fierro
An easy robbery in France? How on earth did this happen?

(SARCASM: OFF)

3 posted on 11/14/2004 2:47:00 PM PST by Angry Republican (yvan eht nioj!)
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To: martin_fierro

I don't know which side to marvel at: the thief, with his brass 'nads...or the police, with their unparalleled stupidity.


4 posted on 11/14/2004 2:50:25 PM PST by Prime Choice (STFU ACLU.)
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To: martin_fierro

Do you have a lisonze for your minkey?


5 posted on 11/14/2004 3:17:51 PM PST by Dahoser (!Hillary)
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To: Dahoser

Yah, where's the liczonse? (GMTA!)


6 posted on 11/14/2004 3:56:56 PM PST by SAJ
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To: martin_fierro
I'm surprised the Frog police didn't surrender to the theif and give him free access to not only the jewelry store, but the entire business center.

Aren't they required to carry a white flag with them so they can unconditionally surreneder at the slightest provocation?

Do you have a lisonze for your minkey?

Frog Police: No, but we'll surrender to you anyway.

7 posted on 11/14/2004 5:12:36 PM PST by hadit2here ("Danger lies not in what we don't know, but in what we think we know that just ain't so." Mark Twain)
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To: shaggy eel

Man, this IS so funny !! And to think I am myself an avid collector of fountain pens ! Sacré Bleu, I had almost fooled them all !

I just love these stories. I bought a British book once, that was the records of the "Not Terribly Successful Society". The book was full of such stories : unsuccessful inventions, burglars with bizarre ideas supposed to give them a psychological edge over their victims. Some of them were downright fabulous.


8 posted on 11/15/2004 1:24:03 AM PST by Atlantic Friend
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To: Atlantic Friend

,,, the world's full of opportunities but I won't be writing my own story in this regard. I'll just use the closest pen I can find each time.

9 posted on 11/15/2004 11:04:47 AM PST by shaggy eel
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To: shaggy eel

Good Lord, this fountain pen is a real beauty ! I can't make up the brand, though. It sure doesn't look like a Parker or a Waterman, or a Cross. It's not a Shaeffer either, Omas is out of the question...what brand of pen could it be ?


10 posted on 11/24/2004 6:30:22 AM PST by Atlantic Friend (Cursum Perficio)
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To: Atlantic Friend

,,, it's a Mont Blanc.


11 posted on 11/24/2004 11:13:17 AM PST by shaggy eel
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To: shaggy eel

Ah, classy ! The Montblanc and Dupont are real beauties - too bad they're so damn expensive !


12 posted on 11/25/2004 2:49:06 AM PST by Atlantic Friend (Cursum Perficio)
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To: Atlantic Friend

,,, yeah, it's the sort of thing you pass on to one of your grandchildren.


13 posted on 11/25/2004 11:38:46 AM PST by shaggy eel
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To: shaggy eel

It's the sort of thing I'd be buried with, and my grandchildren could just be damned ! LOL


14 posted on 11/26/2004 2:08:30 AM PST by Atlantic Friend (Cursum Perficio)
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To: Atlantic Friend

,,, ha! That's the spirit!!! Let 'em work for their own. Good one!


15 posted on 11/28/2004 11:35:25 AM PST by shaggy eel
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