They tried to pass off cable theft as a real intervention on telecom networks

Les malfaiteurs se sont fait passer pour de vrais employés des réseaux de télécoms. Midi Libre – Illustration MICHAEL ESDOURRUBAILH

Deux suspects ont été interpellés en pleine nuit à Frontignan. Ils prétendaient faire des travaux sur le réseau téléphonique. 

The duo of criminals thought they had found the trick, to act openly to better conceal their crime. This was without taking into account the pugnacity of the Sète police officers. During the night of Wednesday January 3 to Thursday January 4, around 3 a.m., the police station was informed that an anti-theft alarm had just been triggered on a network of underground cables located in Frontignan, route de Balaruc . An area outside the urban area, at the Rèche roundabout.

The criminals wanted to make it true

On site, the police crew came across two men dressed in reflective yellow vests, busy around a professional van. Safety cones have been installed on the roadway. Nothing abnormal a priori. The police question what appears to be two licensed professionals. They tell them that they are carrying out preparatory work for an upcoming project. But over the course of the exchange, inconsistencies appear in the speech of the two "workers".

Law enforcement immediately contacts the employer cited by the individuals. The company's on-call personnel will deny any ongoing intervention, at night, in this sector. The two men are arrested and taken into custody. 

300 meters of cut cables

After a few hours of interrogation, the suspects confess. They had already started loading 300 linear meters of copper telephone and fiber optic cables into the van, for a loss of around €10,000, before being interrupted.

The theft caused an outage on the internet network and required repairs.  

The two accused, one domiciled in Switzerland, the other in Montpellier, were released with a summons to appear in court correctional for theft in a meeting. They should be tried next March.