“They sent two malabars and they asked him for 5,000 euros, it’s racketeering”: the traders of greater Montpellier helpless in the face of travelers

In Baillargues, at the beginning of December, Royal Kids was unable to work for a week and paid €10,000 to a security company.

The mayor of Pérols, Jean-Pierre Rico, called in an excavator to prevent caravans from accessing a Fenouillet car park. T.J. – Midi Libre

In Saint-Jean-de-Védas, a merchant gave 350 € to the traveling people so that they leave, before asking him more. In Pérols, Baillargues, the story was not resolved in the same way but the problem is identical.

350 euros is the sum that a merchant from Saint-Jean-de-Védas would have paid for the benefit of travelers. The goal was for them to leave from his parking lot. "At the beginning, it was 500 €", says one of the professionals concerned, recalling the mishap that happened to one of his neighbors. "They told him: "if you want us to leave, you have to pay us". He negotiated at 350 € and he gave it to them, to protect his employees. Then they sent him two malabars and asked him for 5000 €. He made the transfer but blocked it because, in the meantime, they had left." A complaint was filed.& ;nbsp;

"I didn't leave the secretaries alone"

For these traders from La Lauze, in Saint-Jean-de-Védas, "there is no&#39 ;other words, it's racketeering. In addition to this illegal process, the installation of large numbers of caravans in parking lots harms the activity of the company concerned. Whatever its sector of activity. Another example, still in the La Lauze area: the CFA Profortech. "We train young people for everything cold: air conditioning, refrigeration engineers, explains the site director, David Klein. When they were there, it was complicated. Young people, employees, everyone parked in the street and passed among the caravans and electric cables to return. For receiving visitors, too, it is not ideal. And I didn't leave the secretaries alone, they finished earlier. We tried to negotiate their departure but each time, they pushed back the date. Today, there is only a van and a caravan left in front of our premises. The others told us that they had gone to Perpignan for a funeral."

 In Saint-Jean-de-Védas, everyone has in mind the mishap that happened to the Picard brand. Travelers parked in the parking lot and plugged in, on the weekend, into the meter of the frozen food store, which tripped. Results: All merchandise was lost. 

This boss from Baillargues paid 10,000 € a security company

On the side of Royal Kids, in Baillargues, Fabrice Reynier approached the problem differently. It cost him  10,000 €. The price of the invoice from the security company he hired. "For three weeks. However, the caravans only stayed for a week, from Thursday November 30 to December 6. This is the time it took the prefecture to do its job but it did it, even if it was a little long for us. Afterwards, other caravans arrived, we had to redo all the procedures and we wanted to prevent them from re-establishing themselves so we kept the security agents on."< /em>