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A cute young blonde opens the door for Paris bank robbers
Aug 19, 2009, 13:37 GMT
Paris - All three members of a gang that tried to rob a bank in the smart rue Monge in central Paris were in custody Wednesday as police explained the gang used a 17-year-old blonde to open the way.
The teenager, made up to the nines and clad in chic summery white, charmed her way into the high security area, where she pulled a gun and ordered staff to let in her male accomplices, also teenagers.
The aim had been to raid safes containing clients' valuables - but the bank had no such facility, police said Wednesday.
The youngsters - who apparently failed to do their homework and were unaware of an automatic bank-police link - were then surprised by police who had rushed to the scene.
The three fled through an emergency exit, but two including the girl were caught. The third was easily tracked down and arrested in an apartment in Alfortville, near Paris, on Wednesday.
Police said they were far from surprised at the youth of the gang and that a girl was part of it. The number of young females involved in violent crime had doubled to 7,000 a year since 2003.
One of the male gang members already had a record of 41 offences, while the girl had a record of threatening behaviour and criminal damage, police said.
'They're capable of going very far, very fast,' lawyer Joseph Cohen-Sabban was quoted by Le Parisien newspaper as saying in remarks about how vulnerable girls from troubled areas were easily recruited for crime.

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