He thought he had found a buyer for his vehicle for sale on a classifieds site.
It was actually just a scam.
A man was dragged about ten meters by his own car after an individual stole it from the parking lot of the station in Narbonne (Aude) Thursday January 13, we learned this Friday from sources policewomen.
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The facts occurred in the middle of the day, a little before 5 p.m., under the dumbfounded eyes of several witnesses, one of whom filmed the scene.
Whoever presents himself as a potential buyer of the vehicle, a Mercedes class A, naturally climbs aboard, on the driver's side, to "
try it
".
Once alone at the controls, he suddenly shifts into reverse, even though the door is still open.
The owner tries to hold him back, in vain.
He was then dragged about ten meters and ejected to the ground.
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After getting up immediately, the victim dials 17 while the thief flees. Quickly, several members of the Anti-Crime Squad (BAC), emergency police and police motorcyclists set off in pursuit of the fugitive. After a few minutes, they spot him on a road towards Perpignan. The agents summon him to stop, he refuses. On the contrary, he accelerates and engages on a small path where he is finally forced to slow down. The agents of the BAC who precede him get out of the car, thinking of arresting him. But in full view of the police, the suspect deliberately charges at them and narrowly misses knocking them down. “
At that time there was a desire to take the lives of the police. The vehicle becomes a weapon
,” points out a police source.
A case
“that could have gone very badly”
Always chased, the fugitive manages to engage on a highway where he breaks a toll gate.
But after a few kilometers, the Mercedes runs out of gas and the mad dash comes to an end.
The suspect is apprehended on a hard shoulder and taken into custody.
"
It's a case smoothly carried out by colleagues but which could have gone very badly
", notes David Leyraud, of the Alliance police union in Aude.
The latter wishes to congratulate the police for "
their incredible coolness and their professionalism
".
He now hopes that criminal sanctions “corresponding
to the seriousness of the facts
” will be taken.
“We denounce this unacceptable act of violence for what is, at the start, only a car theft and which would not have cost the author very dearly in criminal terms. Yet he did not hesitate to endanger the lives of several police officers, completely mocking the consequences, ”
he protested.
This kind of classified ad scam is "
a great classic, no more in Narbonne than elsewhere
", assures another police source.
At the beginning of November 2021, in Finistère,
Ouest France
reported the story of a young woman who had put her car up for sale on Le Bon Coin and who had been gassed by three fake buyers who had seized her vehicle. .
In May, in Morbihan, a saleswoman was attacked and dragged several meters by her vehicle for the same reasons.
