“Two people break windows and steal from cars in Jemeppe-sur-Meuse”, an alerter wrote to us in mid-November via the orange Alert us button. A few days earlier, another reader informed us: “In our region, Jemeppe-sur-Meuse, 11 cars were vandalized. The police do nothing. The thieves are not going to stop.“You will have understood that many of you have drawn our attention to damage caused to cars to which are added thefts.
On the night of November 10 to 11, Lorenzo (assumed name) parks his car in front of his home in Jemeppe-sur-Meuse. The next day, he gets up early to go to work. It is 5am when he discovers the unpleasant surprise: the passenger side window has been broken. “They stole his Ray-Ban sunglasses and 30 euros in coins“, explains his brother who alerted us. Lorenzo hastens to go to the police station to file a complaint. “He is told that he cannot file a complaint directly, but that he must make an appointment and file his complaint online”, continues his brother. An appointment is set for November 24, 13 days later.
Caught in the act
In his misfortune, Lorenzo can count on a very small stroke of luck. The thugs were filmed by a neighbor’s CCTV cameras. He therefore attached the images obtained to his complaint filed online.
In the meantime, Lorenzo cannot drive with a broken window and goes to his repairer. New twist, three other people are there with the same problem. All of them had their windows broken in Jemeppe-sur-Meuse. “The employee told me he saw at least 11 vandalized customer cars“, says Lorenzo who wonders: “If we had taken my statement on the 11th, perhaps other facts might have been avoided. Why do we have to make an appointment to denounce facts like that?“
A recent epiphenomenon
Yves Hendrix is the divisional police commissioner of Seraing-Neupré, the area where the facts occurred. He confirms that the town of Jemeppe-sur-Meuse is facing a wave of vandalism and theft from cars: “We have a small epidemic. Just last night, there were 6 facts”he explains. “We are attentive to this phenomenon and we will increase the police presencee”, he reassures. According to the commissioner, there is a good chance that it is or are the same authors, because the operating mode is identical and that the facts occur in the same sector. Yves Hendrix speaks of a “recent epiphenomenon.
Filing a complaint online, an ecological approach?
Concerning the online complaint rather than in physical presence, the divisional commissioner evokes an ecological approach. The process would also allow people to avoid long queues. Complaints are thus better distributed to the right collaborator within the police station, because not everyone is trained for certain specific facts, it is explained. The Seraing-Neupré police zone specifies that urgent reception is done without an appointment when there is a “possible bodily harm.”
“Not every system works 100%”
Regarding the images transmitted by Lorenzo during his online complaint, Yves Hendrix seems surprised: “Clearly there has been a fault in the handling of the information, I will be sure to investigate, to fix it. Unfortunately, not every system works 100%”. The head of the body recalls all the same that the phenomenon was noticed and wonders if the victim took care to communicate that she had images which might have made it possible to advance the investigation. “We might have delegated a patrol to her (the victim), to get the images.”
A small hiccup that would certainly have avoided the degradation of additional cars.
