“Pawns, good little soldiers”: the young robbers of the Orange store in Balaruc-le-Vieux were recruited on Snapchat

Le traumatisme des employés et des clients présents lors de l’attaque a été longuement abordé. Midi Libre – RICHARD DE HULLESSEN

Four Lyonnais aged 18 to 22 were tried on Wednesday 28 August before the Montpellier Criminal Court for having attacked this telephone store, armed with hammers, on 25 July. The instigators had recruited them on the social network Snapchat by promising them a payment of just over 2,000 euros. They were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 12 to 18 months.

"Naive", "immature" and reflections of "the uberization of delinquency& quot; : these are the words used by their lawyers to describe the four young defendants tried on Wednesday August 28th before the Montpellier Criminal Court for the robbery of an Orange store in Balaruc-le-Vieux on July 25th. While one of them denied it until the end (he maintains that he was there as part of a carpool), the other three, who have no criminal records, admitted to having been recruited via the social network Snapchat to commit this theft, for a fee of just over 2,000 euros.

Arrested a few hours after the events

Armed with hammers, hooded and gloved, the Lyonnais showed up at around 9am at the store located in the Carrefour shopping centre, where there were several customers (none were injured). The robbers were given numerous electronic devices (phones, smart watches) and then fled to their home region. At 1pm, they were arrested by the police, who were familiar with this modus operandi.

“I was told it was risk-free”

In the procedure, one of them explained that he had acted, for 2,300 euros, in order to pay off a debt. The instigators first offered him to take part in the robbery. He refused. They then asked him to play the role of the driver, which he accepted. “I had a license and a legal car. I was told it was safe. That's very stupid of me. I regret it very much”, he admits in the dock. “Why did you specifically need money to commit such serious acts ?”, asks President Alix Fredon to another of the four Lyonnais. “I had been stabbed which prevented me from working as an electrician”, he justifies himself. “It was a stupid mistake on my part”, he formulates in turn. The only one to deny the facts is also the only one already convicted of similar facts. He explains that the others came to get him in Palavas, where he was in trouble after having his belongings stolen on the beach.

Post-traumatic stress of victims

The hearing reveals the trauma of the employees and customers present that day. Six of them have joined the case as civil parties. “There were in particular little girls aged 4 and 5 with their mother and a pregnant woman,” the prosecutor, Moune Mercan, stated in her indictment. Me Virginie Manzi, a client's lawyer, described her client's post-traumatic stress, which has now caused him to lose his hair and beard. The lawyer for the three Orange employees mentions the psychological support that one of them must receive.