Le Figaro Nantes
International cooperation has borne fruit.
On February 12, German police intercepted, at the border with the Czech Republic, a truck carrying eight Hitachi mini excavators and various other construction equipment which had been stolen in France 48 hours earlier.
A seizure made possible thanks to the rapid alert relayed at European level by the gendarmes of the Nantes research brigade.
“This is very good news for injured owners who will be able to recover their machines
,” confirms to
Figaro
the Loire-Atlantique departmental gendarmerie group.
The thieves, whose fate has not yet been indicated, intervened on the night of February 9 to 10, on the site of several companies in Saint-Étienne-de-Montluc, west of Nantes.
The total value of the stolen material was nearly 300,000 euros.
Schengen determining
According to our colleagues from
Ouest-France
, investigators managed to quickly identify a suspicious heavy goods vehicle over the weekend, heading towards Eastern Europe.
According to information sent to Le
Figaro
, the description of the truck was then immediately entered into the File of Reported Objects and Vehicles (FOVeS) as well as the Schengen Information System (SIS), which allowed the German police to act.
According to data published in 2022 by the Argos insurer group, only 38% of stolen vehicles end up being found.
Of these, 57% resurfaced within a month of the theft - at least in 2021. And a large number of victims turn out to be farmers.
According to a report from the national gendarmerie from April 2023, farmers were the subject of 384 machine thefts in 2022. Thefts which enter into the system of agricultural crime - theft of fuel, mechanical tools, vehicles - intended for resale in Eastern Europe.