Mamadou is lucky in life: he lives in Bois-l'Abbé.
Often blacklisted for its delinquency problems, one of the largest cities in Val-de-Marne, located between Champigny and Chennevières, has just demonstrated in just over 24 hours that it has a heart big like that.
It is thanks to the extraordinary mobilization of its inhabitants that a kid from the neighborhood was able to return home at the end of a hardly believable journey.
Disappeared Monday at 4.30 p.m. at the exit of his school in Hauts-de-Chennevières, Mamadou, 10, was found safe and sound during the night from Tuesday to Wednesday around 2:30 am at the Porte de Clignancourt in Paris.
This Wednesday evening, we still did not know for sure whether it was an RATP agent or a simple passer-by who recognized the child.
What is certain, however, is that this person had read the research notice widely distributed by the inhabitants of the neighborhood.
"We considered the kidnapping"
The story begins Monday afternoon when Mamadou's parents do not see their child return.
It is not in his habits.
“He's a calm boy who never poses a problem,” contextualizes a mother whose son is in class with him.
Around 9 p.m., a report was made to the Chennevières police station.
Classmates explain that they saw their boyfriend take the opposite path to the one he usually takes.
The police officers, seized for this disturbing disappearance, peel all the images of CCTV.
They retrace the route of Mamadou who goes on foot to the Pince-Vent shopping center, on the edge of Ormesson.
And then nothing.
“We went through all the states, rewinds one of the investigators.
Impossible to have an idea on what could have happened.
We quickly ruled out a family conflict.
We considered the kidnapping but nothing allowed to accredit this thesis
(Editor's note: this is the reason why this particular device was not triggered by the prosecution).
The trail of the runaway was more believable even if it had never happened with Mamadou.
"
The dog squad sniffed the child's clothes but in vain.
On Tuesday morning, around thirty police officers survey the entire area, from the closest to the school to the surrounding towns.
A story of marbles?
They are not the only ones, far from it.
Because the Bois-l'Abbé does not sit idly by.
After a first notice posted on social networks, the first groups of inhabitants are formed to find the child.
"He's a kid from the neighborhood," a youngster who took part in the research is surprised.
If it was our child, we would like others to act the same way.
"
But the research is just as fruitless.
According to a relative of the parents, Mamadou, after his passage near the shopping center, would have followed a friend for a story of marbles before getting lost.
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But this Tuesday, at the beginning of the afternoon, the police officers of Chennevières exhausted the means at their disposal.
The prosecution relinquished them to entrust the case to the brigade for the protection of minors, the specialized service of the judicial police.
Residents from all over Ile-de-France who came to help with the research
In the neighborhood too, we take out the heavy artillery to find Mamadou.
Tuesday around 7 p.m., a hundred people meet in Chennevières to set up a battle plan.
"There were not only people from Bois-l'Abbé," said Mamadou Sy, municipal councilor of Champigny, figure of the city and spokesperson for the family that evening.
I spoke with parents from Pontault-Combault (Seine-et-Marne) or young people from Neuilly-sur-Marne (Seine-Saint-Denis).
"
We split up in different cars, we created a WhatsApp group and everyone went to the 14th arrondissement of Paris.
Because it is in a street near Alésia station that the child's backpack has just been found, announces Mamadou Sy around 8 p.m. before the beatings begin.
"The satchel was in good condition, which left us to think that there had been no violence," slips an investigator.
With his friends, a young man from Bois-l'Abbé on the Champigny side goes to Alésia.
“We looked everywhere.
In the metro, in buildings, Gare Montparnasse.
RATP agents agreed to look at the video surveillance images.
" Nothing.
But in the middle of the evening, finally a track.
Glimpse with other children in a fast food restaurant
One of the groups collected the testimony of a waitress from KFC d'Alésia.
“She recognized Mamadou with her ears a little protruding, smiles Mamadou Sy.
He was with other children.
They wanted to eat chicken, but they did not have the money to pay.
She brought them out.
»They are then about thirty inhabitants in front of the fast food sign.
The dog squad joined them to sniff the child's clothes again.
But it doesn't work.
It was then that one of the women participating in the research launched that she knew from "a friend who works in the police that Mamadou would have been seen in the nineteenth arrondissement", slips one of the members of the equipped.
Everyone goes to the neighborhood.
But again in vain.
"We all had 6 or 7 hours of research in the paws, we were exhausted", recognizes the young person from Bois-l'Abbé who comes back to bed around 2 am.
He would have lost himself and would not have dared to ask for help
The deliverance occurs at 2:40 am with this phone call from the person who spotted Mamadou porte de Clignancourt in Paris (18th century).
One of the groups still in the area rushed in and found the child, who was in good health.
"He would have explained that he got lost and did not dare to call for help," one of the young people believes.
This Wednesday afternoon, Mamadou was at home with his mother who sent a message overnight a message of thanks to all those who participated in the research.
“A huge relief, blows one of the young people.
We all participated.
I have rarely seen such a wave of solidarity.
"