Game consoles, telephones and other branded products... Since the creation of the online sales platform between individuals Leboncoin, thefts committed during transactions are frequent throughout France.
New recent example in Essonne.
Two 15-year-old teenagers are accused of twelve telephone thefts committed since the beginning of 2024 in various towns in the department against users of the site.
They were arrested and brought before the courts this week.
The first reported theft was committed at the beginning of January in Épinay-sur-Orge.
“The victim had a meeting with an individual for the sale of his phone following an ad he had placed on Leboncoin,” relates a person close to the case.
Except that the sale is cut short: the “buyer” snatches the cell phone, an iPhone, from the seller’s hands and flees.
Read alsoYvelines: he thought of selling his PlayStation 5 on Leboncoin and fell into the ambush of serial thieves
During her complaint, the victim specified that a second person, a young man, was with the perpetrator.
An investigation is open.
The police officers from the Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois police station will then take an interest in the data left by this “buyer” on Leboncoin.
Telephone records will also prove valuable in tracking down suspects.
Arrested in flagrante delicto
But it is indeed an unexpected twist of fate which seals the outcome of this affair.
Monday, March 4 in Linas, an off-duty police officer surprises a new snatching theft in flagrante delicto.
The perpetrator caught in the act is none other than one of the two suspects identified by Essonne investigators.
He is a 15-year-old boy living in Ballainvilliers.
At his home, the police seized a phone reported stolen in February, again by a user of the Leboncoin site.
What followed was the arrest the next day, in La Ville-du-Bois, of the teenager's alleged accomplice, also aged 15.
A search of his room led to the discovery of another stolen phone.
He would have played the role of accompanist.
Confronted with the elements collected during the investigations, the two boys partially admitted the facts.
In total, the police attributed twelve separate acts to them, committed between the beginning of January and March 4.
The perpetrators thus allegedly repeated their stratagem in Longjumeau, Arpajon, Ballainvilliers, etc. At the end of their custody, the teenager presented as the main perpetrator was brought before a children's judge at the Évry-Courcouronnes judicial court.
His accomplice was released with a summons to appear before the same court in May.