“Saint-Chamond was in turmoil on Saturday morning. The Caisse d’Épargne branch, located on Place de la Liberté, had just been robbed by at least three individuals, right under the noses of the many passers-by and fairground workers present at the Saturday market. »
Therefore Sunday Center summarized, in its edition of Sunday June 19, 1994, the daring heist perpetrated the day before in the Couramiaude city.
But the case, which had been carefully prepared, had actually started several hours before the heist.
Banker’s family sequestered in car trunks
It all starts around 2 a.m., in the Forez plain. Several individuals break into a villa in Veauche. This is where the director of the Caisse d’Epargne de Saint-Chamond lives.
“Heavily armed, they then kidnapped the banker’s family: his wife and his two children, a girl and a boy aged respectively 17 and 14,” explains our journalist Françoise Salle.
For four hours, the whole family is kept in respect. Then, around 6 a.m., the two children were tied up and locked in the trunk of their Renault R21, while the father and mother were sequestered in the trunk of the family’s second car, a Renault Clio.
The thugs then got behind the wheel of the two vehicles and rushed to Saint-Chamond.
800,000 francs in cash
“The thieves were apparently well informed, making sure to arrive at Liberty Square shortly before the vaults could be opened. Indeed, for technical security reasons, the safes cannot be unlocked before a certain time,” relates our journalist.
The robbers also took the time to place a sign on the agency’s door specifying that exceptionally, it would only open its doors at 8:45 a.m. due to a computer failure.
Around 8 a.m., two bank employees were taken hostage as they arrived at their workplace. Then, a few minutes later, the three robbers finally left the bank branch: they got their hands on loot of nearly 800,000 francs, taking away the cash contained in the safes and the ATM.
Abandoned cars on the street
Dressed up and wearing wigs, the three robbers flee.
A few minutes later, we found the banker’s two cars abandoned on rue Jean-Dugas. In the trunk, the banker’s children and wife are unharmed. But the affair shocks the entire region with the violence of the modus operandi.
A precedent in Chavanay, a year earlier
On Friday March 5, 1993, another hold-up with hostage-taking had already shaken the news. It was in the town of Chavanay that the events took place: a lone criminal had burst into a Crédit Agricole agency and, under threat of a sawed-off shotgun, had 30,000 francs handed over to him. in the cash register, and fled in the Citroën GS of the deputy director of the agency, taking the latter hostage.
The victim was finally abandoned, shortly after, on the heights of the town: she had been locked in the trunk of her car.
