Mitry-Mory: the catalytic converter thieves of thirty buses cause 300,000 euros in damage

Not everyone was resting last weekend. A team of criminals took advantage of the tranquility of the weekend to break into Iveco Bus, a garage, technical control and dealer specializing in heavy trucks, industrial vehicles and Iveco coaches located rue René-Cassin, in Mitry-Mory, in an area of activity located inside the bend of the Francilienne, between N 2 and A104.

On the spot, the criminals carried out a real raid on the catalytic converters of about thirty buses parked within the site, carrying spare parts whose market value, to which must be added the damage committed on the targeted vehicles, is estimated at about 300,000 euros.

"There was a big noise of pan and we quickly understood"

"In fact, we realized that there was a problem on Monday morning, when we wanted to start a bus that was waiting for delivery. There was a big noise of pot and pan and we quickly understood, "says an employee. It must be said that this is not the first time that the site has suffered such a misadventure. "We're at three in three years," he says. Each time, these are very important prejudices. According to another employee, the thieves operated on two-thirds of the vehicles, those least exposed to public view.

How did this team get there? The police officers of the Urban Security of the Villeparisis agglomeration police station, in charge of the investigation, made the usual findings. According to our information, only part of the site is placed under video surveillance and the criminals would have entered by climbing a fence.

"It is often well-organized teams that engage in this type of theft, says a person close to the case. We found that other companies in the sector have repeatedly been victims of a significant number of catalytic converter thefts. It should be remembered that the latter contain precious metals, including rhodium as well as platinum and palladium.