AND HERE IS THE NEWS…

….a quick glance at the latest local news with Caroline Manson

Perpignan police foil two burglaries

At around 3.20am on Sunday 24th police spotted a man behaving suspiciously in the Cours Francois Palmarole area.  He had, in fact, just attempted a burglary at a local restaurant business and was carrying his tools in a hold-all.  Despite the fact that he attempted to hide the bag under a parked car the police managed to catch him and he was arrested and will face the courts.  Later on that morning a vigilant neighbour called the police to say that there was an ongoing burglary at the Fustel Street veterinary clinic.  The police arrived quickly at the scene, just in time to catch the man who was attempting to escape via the roof of the building.  He has been identified as being the alleged perpetrator of several other recent burglaries.

Police catch illegal poachers in St Cyprien port.

We are (sadly) accustomed to hearing of the police finding an ‘impressive haul’ of drugs but at the Port of St Cyprien the haul consisted of 16kg of ….. clams! It appears that the poaching of clams is a continual problem along the coastline of the Pyrénées-Oriéntales so the police have been carrying out regular controls around the ports.  Last Wednesday, during their patrol, the police came face to face with an individual who was struggling to carry a very heavy bag.  Inside the police found an impressive quantity of illegals sourced clams, and several other bags were found nearby.  The suspect was arrested, and not for the first time apparently, and the clams were put back into the water.

Motorway traffic chaos in Spain

We’re all used to traffic jam stories about the A9 motorway but perhaps things have never been so bad as last Wednesday on the Spanish side (where it is known as the AP-7).  Catalonian teachers who are calling for a salary increase decided to stage a protest, by staging a sit-in on the motorway, and 1200 strikers completely blocked the road in both directions on the section around Girona.  Thousands of motorists were trapped in the traffic in the blazing heat, for many hours.  People were forced to drive in the wrong direction in an effort to get off the motorway and the situation only returned to ‘normal’ again in the early evening.

Thieves attack Perpignan Food Bank

Late on Sunday night the food bank charity Banque Alimentary 66 was the victim of a burglary at its premises in the Polygone Nord sector in Perpignan.  They targeted five vehicles, including refrigerated vans, and stripped them of their catalytic converters, which apparently contain previous metals such as palladium, rhodium or platinum and are particularly sought after on the black market.  The director of the premises is devastated as without their vans the team cannot make their regular tours of supermarkets and other food partners to recover goods to hand out to the needy.  The targeted vans were not visible from the road and while the scene was recorded on security cameras no arrests have yet been made.   

Sunny weather brings out the scammers again

According to the article, now that summer has definitely arrived we are all getting out our summer finery and also our best jewellery (?) which means it is boon time for thieves.  The thieves have two preferred methods of distracting their victims – firstly the scammer will spray the back of the victim with a smelly liquid similar to bird droppings, then will act as a good samaritan by offering to wipe off the mess, while discreetly helping themselves to jewellery (and wallets, phone etc).  The other one is operated by a lady who approaches victims saying that she has lost her dog, and when the victims sympathise or give directions to the police station the thief steps forward to offer a hug, while discreetly helping themselves etc etc etc.

Large fire breaks out on hottest May Day in history

On Thursday 28th a fire broke out on the edge of the A9 motorway where it passes near Trouillas.  The fire took hold on an area of reeds, scrubland and dense vegetation and covered around 5 hectares before firefighters managed to put it out.  They also evacuated 15 dogs from a nearby kennel at Mas Sabole.  The fire caused severe disruption on the D612 with jams from Villemolaque to Tresserre.

Whale seen off Catalan coast

Last Sunday a group of people on the Navivoile ship which runs discovery visits off the Catalan coast got much more than they bargained for.  A common (?) whale weighing around 40 tons was filmed jumping out of the water.  The captain of the ship assured the passengers that this was an extremely rare sighting and that the last time he had spotted one was around 40 years ago.  He explained that while this is the best time of year to try to observe whales he was surprised to find one so close to the shore – the ship was travelling between Canet and Argeles and was at around 5 nautical miles (8km) from the beaches.