Tobacco shops are often a target for burglars looking to make easy money. Saturday January 11, 2025, two businesses in Indre-et-Loire were targeted: in Savonnières, where the thugs were put to flight, and in Druye, where the individuals left with cartons of cigarettes. Tobacconists testify: the risk of burglaries is unfortunately part of the profession.
In his Monts tobacconist, in this calm afternoon of January 14, Gabriel Courault shrugs his shoulders. He installed alarms and smoke bombs to deter criminals in the event of a break-in. If he says to himself ” worried “he takes risks philosophically and does not let himself be carried away by fear. “Afterwards, there's not much we can do. We are not going to fence everything off and put a wall in front of us. »
“We don’t always sleep very well”
Two kilometers away, Dilia Ferreira receives customers in her press depot that she has been running since 2021. She still remembers the morning when, just four months after moving in, she discovered that she had been burglarized.
Unfortunately for them, the thugs were poorly informed: the shopkeeper had chosen not to sell cigarettes, only newspapers and scratch games. « They only took the scratch games”she says. A loot of €500. Out of the question for her now to think about selling cigarettes. “When you see everything that’s happening… I’m not taking the risk. »
The burglaries? “It’s not new”responds for his part, disillusioned, Jean-Louis Mironne, tobacconist in Esvres. “The big wave of burglaries was twenty or thirty years ago. » He himself paid the price. Since its installation forty years ago, it has been robbed twelve times: “From the front, from the back, through the roof…he lists. We will never stop them from returning. And the more you protect, the more damage they will do. »
“No one saw anything”
One of the burglaries that most marked him took place one evening, just half an hour after the closing of his business, located in the town of Esvres. “No one saw anything”he relates, still incredulous. A few of his burglaries have been solved. “We managed to get a few. They're not very smart. »
In other cases, the individuals were never found. “Everything that is sold on the street, it has to come from somewhere”analyzes Jean-Louis Mironne. According to him, proof of the existence of underground sales networks: “There are customers who never buy tobacco, yet they smoke. »
-“We don’t always sleep very well. We think about it »admits the tobacconist. The last time he was hit? He thought for a few moments. “It’s coming back… Knock on wood. »
“Quite cautious”
Squadron leader Benoit Marichez-Dauriac, commander of the Chinon gendarmerie company, explains that it is difficult to establish a typical profile of tobacco shop burglars. “The burglary [de Druye]it is rather itinerant delinquency which comes from outside. » The broad daylight robbery of the Saint-Mars-la-Pile tobacco shop on December 6, “was more local, opportunistic”. In court at the end of December, the man arrested mentioned having acted under the influence of ” voice “.
The gendarmerie commander lists around ten similar incidents in his sector in 2024. “We have quite a few, but we had two notable ones in a short time. »
“When it’s professional teams, delinquency comes from elsewhere, unfortunately for us, they are quite cautious, relates the gendarme. They can use a vehicle stolen in one place and burned in another, people often have their faces masked…”
He advises merchants not to leave values visible to the public, to hide stock, and to avoid restocking in front of customers. And, in the event of a burglary, notify the police and not intervene.
