Three men tried in Amiens for the theft of 120 ducks

Illustration of a duck.

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• Three men appear before the Amiens Criminal Court on Friday for the theft of 120 whistling ducks.

• These ducks, used for hunting, are very popular with thieves.

  A couple costs around 70 or 80 euros.

• This phenomenon is far from recent: in 2013, already, a deputy alerted the Ministers of the Interior and Justice on the subject.

In the days of the Far West, horse thieves were brought to justice.

In Picardy, it is the duck thieves who are prosecuted in court.

Three men suspected of having stolen, between December 2019 and March 2020, around 120 palmipeds appear this Friday morning before the Amiens Criminal Court.

Aged 23, 25 and 42, they were arrested last April by the gendarmes of the Abbeville (Somme) research brigade who identified five victims near Cayeux-sur-Mer, Arrest and Noyelles-sur- Sea.

The financial loss is not very significant, around 3,800 euros in total.

But for some inhabitants of this hunting region, "their ducks are a lifetime", one of them confides.

The first thefts were reported to the gendarmes of Saint-Valery-sur-Somme at the end of 2019. “In general, when there are stolen ducks, these are called waterfowl, that is to say whistling or teal ducks, ”

Roger Catez, president of the maritime hunting association in Calais

, explains to

.

21 ducks found

These ducks are bred to call out migrating birds passing over the Baie de Somme and encourage them to land in a pond… Where, of course, hunters hidden in a hut await them.

"These are the birds most sought after by thieves," continues Roger Catez.

The couple costs around 70-80 euros, easily, or even a little more.

"

When they are not used for hunting, they are locked up by their owners in large parks.

"But with a fisherman's log [a boat], it is easy to catch," breathes the hunter.

Before adding: “They do scouting because you have to know the place.

"

"Members of their family"

In mid-April, information leads investigators on the trail of the three suspects they question in the wake.

Among them, two hunters from the region.

While searching their homes, the gendarmes found 21 ducks as well as a battery of electric fences which belonged to one of the victims.

According to a source familiar with the matter, the three men admitted the facts in custody.

These facts are far from isolated in the region.

In 2013, the Socialist deputy Jean-Claude Buisine even alerted the Ministry of the Interior and the Chancellery on this subject.

“Each year, around 200 caller flights take place in Picardy, which represents a loss of 500,000 euros.

Few cases are resolved and when they are, the sentences handed down are ridiculous or inappropriate, ”they wrote to the two ministers.

“Moral damage is systematically dismissed or forgotten.

And yet the hunter-herders regard their callers as members of their family.

"

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