He had made auto theft his specialty. A 52-year-old man, suspected of having stolen and set on fire dozens of vehicles, was arrested and indicted Thursday in Lyon. A meticulous investigation by the departmental security of Lyon made it possible to confuse the suspect, suspected of having made 173 victims for damage still being assessed.
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Stolen cars set on fire in underground parking lots
A series of vehicle fires occurred between December 2019 and July 2020 in underground car parks of private residences in Lyon. On several occasions, frightened residents were evacuated, and the amount of damage proved to be considerable.
The procedure is the same each time: the fire starts from a car, stolen a few days before and which is missing parts. These are still cars from French brands, Peugeot 208 or Partner, Citroën Berlingot, stolen a few days earlier. To date, the police have counted 29 stolen and burnt cars, and identified 173 victims (due to the spread of fires).
Two boxes fitted out with all the equipment to dismantle the cars
The investigation is accelerating thanks to a witness who had tried to put out one of the fires in February 2020. He had found suspicious the man who, while driving a small white utility vehicle, had tried to dissuade him to attack the flames. This van was found a few days later and a genetic profile was identified by the technical and scientific police on the objects there.
It matches that of a man well known to the police. His name corresponds to 42 mentions in the processing of criminal records, and has already been implicated for vehicle theft. A telephone tracking job established that he was both at the scene of most thefts and at those of fires.
The surveillance put in place allowed the police officers to locate the suspect in Villeurbanne, where the man had set up two garage boxes with everything needed to dismantle the cars. It is in this veritable clandestine workshop that starting keys, calculators and gasoline jerry cans were found.
He estimates to have stolen more than 250 cars
Prolix in police custody, the man admitted that it took him less than a minute to start a stolen car. He said he stole his first vehicle when he was a minor. At 52, he estimates that he has stolen more than 250 cars since his release from prison at the end of 2019.