- Henry Samuel, Paris
- 7 June 2016 • 3:10pm Armed robbers bit off more than they could chew when they held up a McDonalds in eastern France whose diners included a group of hungry officers from an elite military force.
Around 40 customers were chomping on their burgers on Sunday evening in the fast food outlet in a shopping centre in Besancon when two men burst in, fired in the air with a shotgun, threatened the guests and ordered staff to open the till, which contained €2,000 (£1,550) in cash.
However, unbeknownst to the robbers, among the terrified customers were 11 off-duty members of the French paramilitary special forces, Groupe d’Intervention de la Gendarmerie Nationale, or GIGN - the Gallic equivalent of the SAS - who were not amused at having their meal of Big Macs and French fries disturbed by the low-level criminals.
Along with the French counter-terror police unit, le RAID, the GIGN are highly admired by peers in Britain and beyond. One former SAS officer, Col Tim Collins, recently described them as "among the most effective anti-terror forces in Europe, if not the world" in an assessment in the Telegraph.
Keeping their cool during the hold-up, the GIGN officers only leaped into action as it ended to avoid any collateral bloodshed.
Edwige Roux-Morizot, the local prosecutor, said: “During the hold-up, the gendarmes didn’t do anything. It was out of the question to use their weapons, as this would have created difficulties and could have placed many people’s lives in danger.”
The highly trained and battle-hardened officers were able to pounce on the first of the two robbers when he tripped on his way of the outlet without firing a shot.
However, they were forced to shoot the other in the abdomen when he pointed a gun at them as he sought to make his getaway with the cash, ignoring their orders to drop his weapon.
The two robbers, both in their early 20s and from the local Mombéliard area, were taken to Besancon hospital for treatment.
Both have been remanded in custody and will appear before a judge on charges of armed robbery and violence, Ms Roux-Morizot said.
Special operations gendarmes of the GIGN, will be for the first time among 23,000 police deployed for this year's Tour de France cycle race, which starts on July 2. They will be stationed along the route, "ready to intervene at any moment if needed," Bernard Cazeneuve, the French interior minister, announced last month.
The GIGN specialises in counter-terrorism, hostage rescue, protecting government officials and tackling organised crime.
It was formed in the wake of the 1972 Munich Olympics "massacre" in which Palestinian terrorists took hostage 11 Israeli athletes who all died in a shootout.
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LOL...so the description of the bandits was ...they were 20 year olds from Mombeliard.... LOL.... -
Wait wait wait...you mean armed people stop criminals. OH MY GOD!“Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are." - Benjamin FranklinComment
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additional information newly released ...they wore hoodies...Originally posted by crashguy View PostComment
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First they can't get the menu right, then they sneak the cops in on Dindu and his cousin: Shit ain't right...
[JULES]
Okay so, tell me again about the hash bars.
[VINCENT]
Okay what do you want to know?
[JULES]
Well, hash is legal over there, right?
[VINCENT]
Yeah, It's legal but it ain't hundred percent legal, I mean, you just can't walk into a restaurant, roll a joint and start puffin' away. They want you to smoke in your home or certain designated places.
[JULES]
And those are the hash bars?
[VINCENT]
Yeah, It breaks down like this, ok, it's legal to buy it, it's legal to own it, and if you're the proprietor of a hash bar, it's legal to sell it. It's legal to carry it, but...but that dosen't matter, cause, get a load of this; all right, if you get stopped by a cop in Amsterdam, it's illegal for them to search you. I mean that's a right the cops in Amsterdam don't have.
[JULES]
Oh, man, I'm goin', that's all there is to it. I'm fuckin' goin'.
[VINCENT]
I know, baby, you'd dig it the most.. But you know what the funniest thing about Europe is?
[JULES]
What?
[VINCENT]
It's the little differences. A lotta the same shit we got here, they got there, but there they're a little different.
[JULES]
Example?
[VNCENT]
Alright, when you .... into a movie theatre in Amsterdam, you can buy beer. And I don't mean in a paper cup either. They give you a glass of beer. And in Paris, you can buy beer at MacDonald's. And you know what they call a Quarter Pounder with Cheese in Paris?
[JULES]
They don't call it a Quarter Pounder with Cheese?
[VINCENT]
No, they got the metric system there, they wouldn't know what the fuck a Quarter Pounder is.
Despite America’s long history with SI units, measuring remains a mess in the States. Designed during…
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[JULES]
What'd they call it?
[VINCENT]
They call it Royale with Cheese.
[JULES]
Royale with Cheese. What'd they call a Big Mac?
[VINCENT]
Big Mac's a Big Mac, but they call it Le Big Mac.
[JULES]
Le big Mac! Ahhaha, what do they call a Whopper?
[VINCENT]
I dunno, I didn't go into a Burger King. But you know what they put on french fries in Holland instead of ketchup?2
[JULES]
What?2
[VINCENT]
Mayonnaise.2
[JULES]
Goddamn!2
[VINCENT]
I seen 'em do it man, they fuckin' drown 'em in it.2
[JULES]
Uuccch!Comment
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Sad thing is, if it happened in this country, our Special Forces wouldn't be allowed to be armed.SteveComment
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