While the French make their last purchases in stores to be ready to spend their New Year's Eve with their family, an upsurge in shoplifting is observed by the gendarmerie.

Europe 1 was able to follow a patrol forced to be much more vigilant than usual, at the Saint-Mard shopping center, in Seine-et-Marne.

"We have a lot of goods, we can take a box and leave without too many problems, so you have to be really vigilant", laments the saleswoman of a collectible figurines store in Dammartin-les-Goële, in Seine-et. -Marl.

It's the last day to finish her gifts and shopping for Christmas Eve, so the stores are crowded.

Inventories are full, crates are full, and attempted robberies or shoplifting are on the rise.

"Seeing the gendarmes reassures us"

The gendarmes must redouble their vigilance.

They notably stepped up their patrols in the shops of the Saint-Mard shopping center by making three to four times as many passages.

"It is advisable to remain vigilant with all the delinquency which is generated by this holiday period of end of the year, such as shoplifting or armed robberies", specifies Captain Laurent, who manages the teams.

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And in the figurine shop, where the products are at hand "the fact of seeing the gendarmes turn, that reassures us", confides the saleswoman.

A few steps away, the director of Carrefour, Marc Dekivère ensures that there is "a real development in shoplifting" during the holidays.

The manager of this store, which attracts around 3,000 people a day, noticed at least "2-3 arrests per day, whether for foie gras, alcohol or other festive products. even Christmas gifts ".

Before adding ironically: "Obviously, it's not expensive when you steal them ..."

Prevention work 

To avoid this, traders have the direct number of the gendarmes.

And the latter carry out a whole preventive work to "improve video protection" or "advise [the traders] on their ways of managing the envelopes that they can go to deposit in the bank", recalls Captain Laurent.

Private messaging groups, bringing together police officers and traders, are thus starting to be set up.

A quick way to disseminate information to as many people as possible.