Two women and two men have been appearing before this court since Tuesday for “organized gang theft” for the burglary of the house of football player Di Maria, in Neuilly-sur-Seine, an affluent town in the western suburbs of Paris. The theft took place on the evening of March 14, 2021, when the footballer was playing a Ligue 1 match with PSG against Nantes at the Parc des Princes.
The court acquitted one of the two women and gave the second a six-month suspended prison sentence for having helped and sheltered the first two. The four defendants also appeared for “criminal criminal association”.
Damage estimated at 500,000 euros
Forty luxury watches, jewelry, cash stored in a safe installed in a dressing room had been stolen, for damage estimated at around 500,000 euros. According to the investigation, at least one burglar broke into the home of Angel Di Maria, through a third-floor terrace, without any trace of a break-in.
The player’s partner and two children were present but did not meet the burglar. The demarcation of several telephone lines, the presence of identical vehicles, several days preceding the facts, identified thanks to video surveillance images, established that this burglary had been prepared by the criminals, who knew the place well.
“Moral damage”
“Angel Di Maria wanted to understand what had happened to prevent this type of intrusion from happening again, but also hoped to recover jewelry with high sentimental value,” said the player’s lawyer Clémence Witt.
According to the lawyer, this theft caused “particular moral damage” because it “is part of a context of systematic burglaries of international football players when they are on the field”, generating “constant concern, that of to be, with his family, a target.” Reda B. is also on trial for an attempted robbery in an organized gang” in Saint-Cloud, another well-to-do town located west of Paris, at the home of another former club member, Julian Draxler, between the end of February and the beginning of March 2021.
On the same day as the robbery at Angel Di Maria, during the same match, another burglary had been committed at the home of the family of the Brazilian captain of PSG, Marquinhos, in Chatou, also in the west of Paris. In this case, two men were sentenced in January in Versailles, one to seven years in prison with continued detention, the other to five years in prison, three of which were suspended on probation. A third man was released.