I was minding my own business this morning, reading through this French report about the police breaking up a ring of pickpockets when I noticed something odd.

Apparently, a group of Gypsies has been begging and stealing (pickpocketing) passengers on French trains as well as visitors to Disneyland Paris. 11 people were arrested, six of whom were children, all of them described as being a single family of Gypsies. Uh, great job I guess? Nobody wants their money stolen. But here’s the weird part:

Chose rare, quatre policiers des services d’investigation roumains étaient également présents tandis qu’en Roumanie six arrestations ont eu lieu simultanément dans la ville de Craiova.

Yes, in a “rare move”, this intrepid police action in France was matched by DIICOT officers and a huge combined taskforce of gendarmes, Dolj County police and the DIC all working together to… make arrests to break up this evil criminal gang?

Nope. All the combined Romanian DIICOT/police taskforce did was just conduct searches of 10 houses in Craiova. No one was arrested and the only crime alleged is that Gypsies (from Romania) are sending kids to France to either beg or pickpocket. And reading between the lines, it’s pretty obvious that the French police (who have their own weird “anti-indigent crime” division) did all the work and then included the Romanian police because the Gypsies’ home base is in Craiova.

DIICOT, I should add for those who have never heard of it, is supposed to be the special national law enforcement division that fights terrorism and organized crime. Yes, I supposed some Gypsy families sending children to France is technically crime that’s “organized” but… really? DIICOT is so so proud of this masterful bit of police work that they even made a video.

Good job, brave Romanian police! Next time, try making an arrest and then, you know, actually convict someone of a crime instead of releasing press statements about your “suspicions”. But it’s a good first step and kudos for doing your best to protect us from Gypsy children!