A Romanian national was indicted and placed in pre-trial detention, the Grenoble prosecutor’s office said on Saturday, as part of the investigation into the burglary of Secours populaire, of unprecedented scale, which occurred on Christmas Eve 2023.
The Romanian was indicted for theft during a meeting, break-in into a premises during a meeting, and concealment of aggravated theft, said Eric Vaillant, public prosecutor of Grenoble. The man is suspected of having participated in the “unprecedented” burglary in terms of its scale of one of the main Secours populaire warehouses in Isère, on December 23, 2023.
In addition to the theft of donations of clothing and others, ready to be distributed for the Holidays, the burglary coincided with significant vandalism with damage estimated by Rescue at 300,000, even 400,000 euros. In this vast warehouse of the association located on the outskirts of Echirolles, near Grenoble, the donations had been torn from the pallets where they were stored for future distributions.
Suspected accomplices still sought
Two new vans had been stripped to recover their engines. The building itself had been damaged, the copper cables stolen, the electrical box broken, according to those responsible for Rescue, which provides help to 30,000 people in Isère.
A surge of mobilization followed this “looting”, in the words of Secours, with subsidies being allocated by various local authorities. In addition to the indictment, alleged accomplices are also being sought.