Hand in the potato bag. The gendarmes of Calais, in Pas-de-Calais, arrested two men who confused tolerated gleaning in the fields with theft on an industrial scale. According to our colleagues at Voice of the Norththere are nearly two tonnes of potatoes that the individuals are accused of having stolen from farmers.
The case arose from complaints filed by farmers near Guînes at the beginning of August. They noticed that large quantities of potatoes and onions were regularly disappearing, so much so that the hypothesis of the theft was in no doubt in their minds.
1,500 kg of potatoes and 100 kg of onions
The military took the matter seriously and carried out the investigation. By cross-checking information gleaned from the neighborhood and monitoring on social networks, they isolated two suspicious individuals. The latter, not farmers for two cents, nevertheless sold large quantities of potatoes and onions on Facebook and Le Bon Coin.
On the day the suspects were arrested, the gendarmes actually found a large quantity of merchandise at their home, selling for an average of one euro per kilo. To investigators, the individuals admitted to having stolen a total of 1.5 tonnes of potatoes and nearly one hundred kilos of onions.