Two men convicted of stealing Enigma; the machine is returned

Two young men domiciled in Épinay-sur-Seine were tried in immediate appearance on Monday before the Caen Criminal Court after the theft of the Enigma machine at the D-Day Museum in Vierville. Wissem B., twenty, invoked a need for money to repay his parents for a car they had bought him and which had been stolen from him. Nineteen-year-old Nassim B., whose record already contained several convictions, was trying to minimize the facts. Passionate about the Second World War, he knew the museum for having visited it three years earlier. The third accomplice remained wanted; the defendants did not reveal his identity.

On Saturday, March 1, the day of reopening after winter, three men broke in. Marie-Christine, an employee, had been pressed against a window, one hand over her mouth and the other on her stomach, an assault that she described as traumatic. German military headgear, knives and bayonets had been carried away with Enigma, an encryption and decryption machine used by the German diplomatic and intelligence services.

The thieves had loaded a Bordeaux Peugeot 106 registered in Seine-Saint-Denis, then fled. A witness had picked up part of the plate. The investigation lasted fifteen days. The defendants allegedly showed photographs of the loot, stored in a carton in a cellar, to a merchant who is said to have immediately alerted the investigators. They had first talked about a purchase at a market in Barbès before recognizing the facts. Nassim had just entered training at RATP and Wissem was preparing a professional baccalaureate in energy cold; both had been incarcerated since the previous Saturday.

Michel Brissard, manager of the museum, denounced the theft of part of history and the fall that damaged the machine. The prosecutor's office highlighted an attack prepared after a journey of more than three hundred kilometers. On the contrary, the defense insisted on the amateurism of its clients. Nassim received a three-year prison sentence, with one year to be served in custody, and Wissem a one-year sentence, with six months to be served in custody. This report is signed by Briac Trébert.

A second article relates the restitution, on Thursday morning, to the Bayeux gendarmerie company. Michel Brissard, moved and relieved, said he feared a departure abroad. Enigma still bore the traces of broken glass and deterioration. He had mobilized a network of friends, collectors and art dealers who, approached with photographs, had worked with the gendarmes.

The arrest took place during an appointment with an antique dealer. The investigation associated the Bayeux company, the Saint-Denis research brigade specialized in works of art and the judicial technical service of Rosny-sous-Bois. Commander Deschamps explained that documents and composite sketches had been disseminated, then that the Parisian police had carried out arrests and searches before the arrival of the gendarmes In the afternoon.

Some distinctive items and the third offender were still being sought. Michel Brissard wanted to have the machine restored as soon as possible, acquired about ten years earlier in a garage sale. This second text is signed V. T.

Archive image: https://vierville.cordelle.eu/Photos2008/2008VolEnigmamars2008-21mars2008.jpg