/ 6 June 2006

Thieves loot hundreds of TVs ahead of World Cup

A band of thieves described as ”very organised” broke into a warehouse in a Paris suburb and made off with hundreds of plasma TV sets, ”probably for the 2006 World Cup”, French police sources said on Tuesday.

The robbery was carried out by six armed men, who drove up to the warehouse in the Paris suburb of La Courneuve in a lorry. They then tied up employees before calmly loading hundreds of the state-of-the-art televisions, predominantly with plasma screens, onto the lorry and driving away.

Police said the robbers were ”cool and determined” and speculated that they would ”sell the television sets at a low price, in France or elsewhere, ahead of the 2006 World Cup”, which begins on Friday. — Sapa-dpa