A Franprix store (illustration).

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ALLILI MOURAD / SIPA

  • Is there a risk of being fined when shopping just after curfew, in a store that is closing?

  • This is what denounced, on Facebook, several customers of a Parisian Franprix, who saw a team of police disembark shortly after 6 p.m., Wednesday January 27.

  • If the latter did indeed carry out an identity check, as

    20 Minutes

    was able to confirm, customers still wonder if they were fined or not, as the patrol leader told them during this intervention.

"It's just despicable", "what a shame", "they are going too far" ... On Facebook, in recent days, many Internet users have expressed the same indignation in response to a publication relating to a police intervention, to say the least surprising in this period of health curfew.



Wednesday January 27, shortly after 6.30 p.m., Aurélie recounts, on her Facebook account, the scene she has just experienced in a Franprix in the 20th arrondissement of Paris: “Tonight 6pm and wheelbarrows […], there are still a handful of customers at the checkout who ran (like me) to the supermarket for 3 hamburgers, diapers, 4 yogurts, detergent and Benco.

Suddenly the police arrived on a commando operation.

They shouted at us: "Take out your IDs, leave your shopping, nobody leaves here, everyone will be fined!" We said to them: "But let us finish our shopping and we go home. , we're not doing anything wrong ".

Nothing to do.

I am stunned and sickened by this scene.

"

If this text was particularly taken up by other pages, Aurélie is not the only one to have mentioned this incident: other Internet users have relayed it on social networks, in their own publication or in comments.

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Joined by

20 Minutes

, Aurélie, "surprised that her post was also shared", details the scene which took place just after the daily entry into force of the curfew: "Fifteen minutes before 6 p.m., I ran to the Franprix to buy groceries that I missed.

It was open, so I rushed in.

A few people were shopping.

The cashier told us: "we're going to close", so we all headed for the cash desks.

And at that moment, we heard the police say to us, from the street, with a loudspeaker: "Go home!" "

“The cashiers started to rush us and while I was waiting my turn, I saw that the police had entered the Franprix.

Their leader shouted: "Get your papers out, everyone will be fined."

He took a picture of the identity documents of those who had them, as well as my travel certificate for work, and he agreed to have me take a picture of him with his RIO number [the registration number] if I wanted to challenge it. 'fine.

All the people who had an identity document were able to leave after he repeated to them that we would be fined, but not the others, who were put aside, ”continues Aurélie.

Who deplores this intervention: "It's humiliating, I had to leave my shopping and go home with nothing, with the impression of having been punished like a child who would have done something stupid."

A feeling shared by Arnaud, another customer present at the time, as he tells us: "The aggressiveness of the thing has something to deprive of, because whatever happens and what we say, you know it is happening. will work against you.

This patrol leader obviously intended to line up everyone.

The police took a picture of my identity card, I also showed my certificate of travel for work but I was told that it was useless.

I have the impression that his two colleagues seemed more annoyed by the situation than anything else, they followed orders but were not as vocal as their boss.

"

"It's the way of doing things that shocked me"

And Arnaud adds: “I don't envy the police, their job is difficult, but I think there is a bit of common sense to be had, it is their way of doing things that shocked me.

It doesn't amuse anyone to go running for groceries at 6pm, that's what I said to their boss after he said: “That's enough, it's like that every night”.

He also said: "Those who do not have their identity card, we take you to the police station."

I don't know if he really did, knowing that a father was there with his two children, but without his card.

"



According to the website Service public, non-compliance with the curfew is liable to a fine of 135 euros.

Unlike business travel, shopping after 6 p.m. does not count among the “authorized reasons for leaving” - such an activity is theoretically not possible since stores are supposed to be closed from 6 p.m.

Finally, Tom, another witness to the scene, confirms the course of events while providing some additional information: “I was able to discuss with a police officer when I gave him my identity card, he told me. : "You will not be fined".

I don't know if it was a bluff to simplify things, so I'm just waiting to see if I get fined or not.

He wrote down the information on a piece of paper and took my phone number, then I left ”, continues Tom, who relates his exchange with another policeman, stationed at the exit of the store:“ He explained to me that the problem came from the fact that it was 4 times that they had passed to tell the manager to close at 6 pm sharp.

"

A "call to order" to block access to the store at 5:50 pm

As reported by France Inter shortly after the introduction of the curfew in Ile-de-France, some Franprix stores remained open after 6 p.m., allowing certain customers to discreetly return to shop during a 2-hour window reserved for the withdrawal of races.

Joined by

20 Minutes

, the Franprix sign confirms that "the police went to this store a few minutes after 6 p.m." and "fined ten customers there while issuing a call to order at the store, in asking its staff to close access at 5:50 pm, so that by 6:00 pm everyone is gone ”.



Contacted by

20 Minutes

, the police headquarters had not responded to our requests before the publication of the article.

“What I take away from all this is that the dialogue with the police is extremely important, especially at this time.

But it must be possible and that is up to them during their interventions, ”concludes Tom.

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