Disappearing bronzes, gold chains tied around the necks of shopkeepers, strange nocturnal visits… What’s going on in the Marolles district, or rather in its antique dealers?
Since January 2022, the district has suffered around five thefts per month according to the mayor, for a total of around seventy thefts. At the municipal council, last Monday, the municipal councilor of Engagés, Didier Wauters even tried to draw up a non-exhaustive list… At the end of December the window of the Wine bar on the high street was broken, and its doors smashed. On January 23, in the middle of the afternoon, two hooded men got out of a van to steal construction tools from the Comptoir workshop, rue Blaes.
A bronze (too) easily found
In the same street, the famous antique dealer Jonathan Cohen was the victim of a theft with broken windows, the night of February 17 to 18. A week later, it’s the turn of D+, a designer boutique on the same street. The Horeca sector has not been forgotten either, since the tank was the victim of an attempted theft not long ago, as was the real estate agent on rue Saint-Ghislain. In short, traders are worried, and thieves are still running. It is the mayor who says it, in recent weeks, two people have been arrested for concealment, both have been released.
It may have been a case of a bronze thief from a young neighborhood antique dealer who prefers not to speak openly. Around 6am, his window was shattered, a bronze disappeared… Before being found at midday, 650 meters away, Galerie des Minimes! The man who resold the stolen bronze presented himself with a Thai identity card, and is therefore known to the cheated merchant.
Despite seeing the police investigations progressing at a speed that satisfies them, the antique dealers of the Marolles are organizing themselves. A WhatsApp group is created, on which testimonials, photos or surveillance videos bloom almost daily. However, the Anti-Aggression Brigade has increased its rounds in the neighborhood, “we have concentrated our actions on the Querelle district with a large number of arrests for drug trafficking, but we must also put the package on that. ”, conceded Monday evening the mayor Philippe Close (PS).
One step ahead of the police
Let’s go back for a moment to the case of the stolen bronze, which was mysteriously easily found. Shortly after the event, another burglary, another stolen bronze. Once again, the property was offered to the antique dealer in the Galerie des Minimes, who this time took the trouble to call the police discreetly, but his interlocutor sensed the trap and took to their heels.
The underworld will not spare Serge Baumans either, manager of a veritable Ali Baba barracks on rue Blaes. The man was the victim of at least four robbery attempts in six months, for several thousand euros in losses. In the memory of his surveillance cameras, a veritable anthology of attempted thefts and burglaries. Some wait until nightfall to break through the iron curtain and attempt to break into the trade. Others, more reckless, go so far as to steal from the merchant’s wallet, in broad daylight, while the latter is busy with customers.
Mr. Baumans then transferred the images to the police, but was surprised to see the thief in his shop again a few weeks later to repeat the gesture. The antique dealer tried to lock him in there before the suspect realized it, took to his heels with an accomplice, jumped into a black German SUV and fled.
If the police also made arrests for a home-jacking, a flagrant theft in a car, another of a car, and another with violence, the traders see the customers deserting the district. For an antique dealer and local resident, “it’s a massacre”.