Thieves masquerading as police officers duped an elderly French couple into showing them where they kept their valuables.
The Parisian pair was approached in the car park of their building in the wealthy 16th arrondissement by the criminals who, in the guise of police, informed them that their apartment had been broken into.
The true state of affairs was that the real robbery was just about to commence.
The couple let the uniformed men into their flat and told them were their precious items were to be found. They then realised what was going on and called the police but by then the four thieves had fled.
Meanwhile, the police in Paris have broken up a gang of pickpockets targeting visitors at Disneyland Paris and other tourist sites, thanks to a joint operation by Romania and France.
Europol said the thieves were “organised on a family and clan kinship basis.”
Carrying out some 1,000 thefts in just six months, the gang stole items worth at least €1 million, according to the police. Their haul included cash, mobile phones, jewellery and leather goods.
Forces pounced on 9 February simultaneously in Paris and the southern Romanian town of Craiova, arresting a total of 17 Romanians and recovering nearly €25,000 in cash along with gold, jewellery and watches.
Those arrested in Romania will be handed over to France "as soon as possible", according to Alexandre Ionescu, the security attache at the Romanian embassy, who regretted his country's image as "an exporter of criminals".
The ringleaders face up to 30 years in prison for theft in organised gangs, aggravated money laundering, human trafficking, direct incitement of minors to commit crimes and neglect of minors under 15.
Several minors were taken into custody and were placed in temporary foster homes.
