Champagne from the luxury brand Moët & Chandon (symbolic image)

Photo: FRANCOIS NASCIMBENI/ AFP

The French police are looking for champagne thieves who have engaged in a spectacular chase with the security forces. Early Saturday morning, the criminals stole two trucks loaded with champagne bottles of the luxury brand Moët & Chandon worth a total of around 600,000 euros on the premises of a freight forwarding company in Reims. This is reported by the newspaper »Le Parisien« and the local TV station France 3.

As is customary for such transports, the truck convoy was equipped with GPS trackers. Police were able to locate him later on Saturday morning while he was driving on the National Road 4 east of Paris. The police approached with several cars and made visual contact. Law enforcement agencies first assess the situation on the road, which was busy at the time, and then decided to intercept the convoy.

Thief first breaks through barrier and then apparently panics

When the police approached with three cars, one of the thieves tried several times to ram the cars off the road. When that failed, the criminal braked on the hard shoulder and jumped out of the truck, which was still moving. A BMW then drove up, the champagne thief got in and sped away with the getaway vehicle. The police were unable to follow because they had to secure the driverless truck and lost the trail. An officer ran after the truck, which was driving at around 15 km/h, jumped into the driver's cab and finally brought it to a stop, reports »Le Parisien« .

Meanwhile, the other two police cars pursued the second truck. But just as they were about to stop it near a petrol station, the driver managed to steer the 38-tonne truck through a barrier and thus take an exit. Apparently, however, the thief panicked, because a few minutes later the truck was found abandoned in front of a hardware store in the city of Pontault. All stolen champagne bottles were seized by the police. No one was injured in the operation.

According to France 3, the trucks were examined for DNA traces. According to the report, the police suspect "professionals" behind the theft, who presumably had accurate information about the cargo and who have a network for the resale of the champagne.

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