On Friday May 22, 2015, the Eiffel Tower in Paris
closed for seven hours due to staff protests about the increasing pickpockets
at the tourist site. Not only do the pickpockets target tourists to steal their
money, but they also threaten and assault staff working at the tower.
SETE, the firm in charge of operating the
126-year-old monument, came to an agreement with its workers to re-open. The
Eiffel Tower has about seven million tourists a year, and with summer, the
tourists increase – and so do the pickpockets.
Pickpockets (tricksters and thieves) typically work
in groups of 3-4, but can be in groups of up to 30. They have been in the area
for many years. The thieves used to hang around at the base of the tower, but
now they blend in with the crowds and pretend they are tourists. They even pay
for their tickets to access the levels of the Eiffel Tower. One or more of them
distract tourists while one steals from their bag or pockets. To distract
tourists, the pickpockets take fake selfies, block people’s passageways, or ask
for directions to locations.
Tourists continually complain about them, and this
time the staff stopped work. The police department said it would put 26,000
officers and agents on patrol at the tower and surrounding streets this summer
to mitigate the problem.
On Tuesday May 26, 2015, the police made a numer of
arrests at the tower. A gang operating at the foot of the Eiffel Tower and in
the vicinity of the Chateau de Versaille for about two years were arrested. The
police arrested ten people in two hotels in Issy les Moulineaux and Meudon.
Seven were detained and three were released. Police said the gang of thieves,
all friends or relatives, lived in the hotels. They could afford to live in the
hotels because they make 4,000-5,000 euros a day from pickpocketting, said the
police. The arrests took several months of planning, beginning in September
2014 using video surveillance (Le Figaro, May 29, 2015).
The police said it was a coincidence that the
large-scale arrests were undertaken a few days after the staff protested the
increasing number of thieves. However, this summer, more police will be on
patrol.
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