Snails, oysters, exceptional meats… Holiday products already in the sights of burglars

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On the menu for the end of year celebrations, exceptional dishes, always highly coveted by gourmets. Products sold at high prices, for some, up to 1,000 euros per kilo. So many nuggets that also make thieves salivate. In Clairmarais, in Pas-de-Calais, François Vankemmel has just paid the price for burglars' appetite for snails, a party dish which can rise to more than 100 euros per kilo.

At the end of September, the bay window of his workshop was broken and the freezer looted. "It was in this freezer that they helped themselves. They helped themselves to meat and plates, shells. There were 380 kilos, that's around 40,000 euros. It's a quarter of the turnover. It's enormous and a lot of working time", testifies the heli farmer, disappointed. Six months of work lost, and a question that keeps coming back: who benefits from the theft? “It must be a network, people who know how to do it and who can pass them on,” François supposes.

Lobster, truffles, poultry... Every year, holiday products are the target of burglaries. In December 2025 in Saint-Nazaire, seven merchants were burglarized in the night, several empty windows five days before Christmas. A few days earlier in Vienne, a door was broken in a poultry farm: 40,000 euros in losses.

Oyster farms and butchers under surveillance

In the Arcachon basin, maximum surveillance around the oyster beds. From October onwards, checks multiply on horseback, at sea and even in the air. Day and night, using a drone, the police track the slightest suspicious movements.

In the Gers, in Montpezat, in the countryside, a butcher's shop has also been equipped with a security system. To protect his precious merchandise, Didier Limouzin had a video surveillance system installed: no less than six cameras are installed in the building. “There is an alarm ringing, a big siren outside which alerts us,” explains the butcher-delicatessen. A system that has proven itself, because for three years, there have been no more intrusions.

One October morning in 2023, he found the gate forced. Without noise, the burglars headed towards the cold rooms. “They broke this lock with a crowbar,” Didier shows us. In total, 60,000 euros in damage. “I found myself with bars on the ground, rows of sausages taken away,” says the butcher. Among the goods targeted: matured hams worth 200 euros each. In total, around forty hams were lost. Two months before the holidays, he remains on alert, aware that his precious foodstuffs remain the object of all desire.