For six months, a couple from Vauclusiens stole money from the church of Grau-du-Roi, in Gard. The coins and notes were stolen directly from the church trunk, under the noses of the faithful and the priest, who saw the donations melt away week after week.
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The priest could no longer sleep at night. Since July 2024, the money deposited in the church trunk has evaporated. Was it the work of the lord who recovered his dues? The priest and the faithful doubted it. Alerted at the beginning of December, the gendarmes set up a surveillance system to unravel the mystery.
-For a month, the Grau-du-Roi gendarmes inspected the entrance to the church in plain clothes. “We ended up spotting a man who often came at irregular times, always outside of sermons,” explains the gendarmerie. Friday January 17, when the suspect entered the church, the police took action. “We discovered him, in the presence of his wife, in the act of stealing the church trunk” detail the gendarmes.
To steal the contents of the trunk, the couple, aged 56 and 52 respectively, had put in place an ingenious system. A homemade pliers to steal the notes through the slot, and a quartered reed coated in sticky resin to catch the coins. Nothing escaped them. The damage to the church is estimated between 5,000 and 6,000 euros. The gendarmerie alerted the surrounding departments, which have not recorded similar thefts to date.
The man was taken into custody following his arrest. The couple will have to answer for their actions before a judge next June.
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