There, we install a tree under the porch of its millstone, a little further on, an inhabitant tries a perilous acrobatics to hang some decorations under a window.
It is a little more than 10 am this Thursday morning that the head cooks are already busy for the New Year's Eve which is preparing.
In the opulent rue de la Marne in Champigny-sur-Marne (Val-de-Marne), the Christmas spirit is however marred by fears and sleepless nights since the violent burglaries that have raged in the city and in Saint-Maur-des-Fossés in recent days.
This Wednesday afternoon, twelve suspects were arrested and placed in police custody for armed robbery in an organized gang.
The same operating mode
During the night from Monday to Tuesday, around 2:45 am, a father, a mother and their two children, 4 years and 6 months old, had been kidnapped at their homes in rue de la Marne.
The father had been beaten and tied up with an electric cable.
The mother had to accompany the robbers to an ATM to withdraw 4000 euros.
The house had been looted: 15,000 euros worth of jewelry but also multimedia devices.
It was the second attack in a series of three with similar modalities.
The day before in the same sector of Champigny, 600 meters from rue de la Marne, a retired couple had been attacked and kidnapped for 3:30 at their home, avenue Joséphine-de-Beauharnais.
These old people had to open under duress their safe where there were jewelry.
They had also been stripped of phones, bottles of alcohol, medals, a bank card ...
Wednesday shortly before six o'clock, on the other bank of the Marne, in Saint-Maur this time, three men entered a pavilion in rue Boileau.
The owners' son, who had heard the noise, came down from the first floor.
Before finding himself facing the intruders, held up by a handgun and a knife.
When he notices that the pistol is fake, he screams, which earns him a blow to the head with the butt.
Leaving the thugs time to plunder the pavilion.
And to leave with jewelry worth 5,000 euros, bank cards, computers, phones, passports ...
After two days and two nights of stalking, the investigators arrested twelve young people, some say they are minors, in a squat in Champigny, this Wednesday afternoon.
"It's still traumatic"
In the house where these people in an irregular situation lived, the police of the SDPJ 94 got hold of a large part of the loot stolen during the kidnappings.
"The victims are categorical," assures one of the investigators.
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"The suspects are all young migrants shot with Rivotril, a drug addicted to these delinquents who are often rife in Val-de-Marne, Villeneuve-Saint-Georges or Choisy-le-Roi", describes a source close to investigation.
The weapons allegedly used in the robberies were also found.
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Despite these arrests, fear remains this Thursday in the area.
A neighbor of the family attacked during the night from Monday to Tuesday, a resident who prefers to remain anonymous was also burgled two months ago.
“It was the first time in fifteen years that we have lived here, it happened at night, we didn't hear anything.
They took everything they could, phones, computers.
It took more than three weeks to come out of shock, but it's still traumatic, ”he says.
“Our attacked neighbors are very shocked, they will need time to recover.
Whether it is young migrants is not the subject, we should not all stick this label to them.
They are above all violent delinquents, ”insists the young fifty-something.
Renowned calm district, surrounded according to the inhabitants by small deal points "where the traffickers have every interest in that nothing happens", the area of the rue de la Marne had never known such a series of violent burglaries .
"We don't sleep at night anymore, we close the gate and the door as always, but what more do you want us to do?"
All I can say is that it hurts your guts!
»Testifies a resident returning from shopping.
