Child thieves use dead rat to rob woman at Paris cashpoint

Child thieves use dead rat to rob woman at Paris cashpoint



A notorious gang of Roma cashpoint thieves operating in the centre of tourist Paris is using dead rats to try and distract their victims.

The young criminals - two boys and girl in her teens - were caught on camera as they tried out the scam on Friday morning.

Sidling up behind a woman, they first stood behind her, as they tried to note her pin code, or snatch cash as it was distributed in the French capital.



Then one of the gang – a boy aged around 12 – waived a dead rodent in the woman’s face, prompting her to scream in shock.

A few seconds later, there was a second approach with the rat, and this time the woman shouted ‘Stop!’



As she did so, the unidentified victim was shoved and pushed by the assailants, including the girl, who was wearing a black New York sweatshirt.

It was only when a passerby – a burly man in his 30s – intervened and spoke to the boy with the rat that they finally gave up. It is not thought that the gang got away with any cash on this occasion.



But a few minutes later the same trio were back at the same cashpoint trying to rob another victim.

The Mail Online has obtained a second video which shows them pushing and shoving a man wearing a black T-shirt and jeans.

He put himself in front of the Roma and the cash point, but that did not stop the youths manhandling him too. He too managed to send them away empty handed after being pushed around.

‘The gang is operating with impunity,’ said an eye-witness. ‘They act as if they own Paris, laughing and joking as they rob anybody they can. They've tried the rat trick on a number of occasions this week.’

As they do so, older members of the gang lurk in the background, ready to respond with violence if there is any trouble.

They mainly operate around the cashpoint, which is between Notre Dame Cathedral and the Louvre museum, and next to a Metro station that they run into once one of their robbery attempts is successful.

Numerous tactics are used to try and distract victims, but the rat method is relatively new.



Paris council has been carrying out an extensive programme of rodent control in the area, meaning the bodies of rats who have swallowed pesticide are easily found in bushes and by dustbins.

Police will seldom bother arresting Roma youngsters because they have no papers, and claim they are below the age of criminal responsibility.

When shown the dramatic video, a local officer said: ‘We are doing our best to arrest these criminals. They are very active at the moment.’

Charity and human rights groups were furious in 2014 when a leaked police memo called for the ‘systematic eviction’ of Roma from the centre of the city.

A spokesman for Charity group Catholic Help described the note as a ‘scandal’, saying that it ‘stigmatised a poor community’ and amounted to ‘racial profiling’ - something which is illegal in secular France.

But other Paris officials argued that Roma are behind most of the street crime in the city, involving themselves in everything from aggressive begging to muggings and burglaries.

Most of the Roma live in shantytowns on the outskirts of Paris, which the last Socialist government regularly tried to destroy.

President Emmanuel Macron’s new government has not yet made any effort to deal with lawlessness within the Roma community.

Most of the estimated 20,000 Roma in France are EU citizens with the right to live and work in the country.