Talk about bad timing.
If heist movies have taught us one valuable lesson it is this: do your recon. In this case of a particular mob of armed robbers in eastern France, however, you’d probably just say they picked the wrong day to break the law.
According to The Telegraph, around 40 customers of a McDonald’s restaurant in Besancon had their not-so-Happy Meals terrifyingly interrupted by two men with a shotgun. They reportedly fired the weapon into the air, threatened customers and demanded access to the till – which contained £1,550 in cash.
But as it transpired, the criminals wouldn’t leave with so much as a McFlurry, as the fast food joint just happened to be occupied at the time by a group of off-duty special forces operatives enjoying a quiet meal.
The Groupe d’Intervention de la Gendarmerie Nationale, or GIGN, are essentially the French equivalent of the SAS, and much like their British counterparts, they are not a group of people you want to fuck with – especially mid-Big Mac.
The GIGN are expertly trained in counter-terrorism and hostage situations, so their quick-thinking reactions to what was happening prioritised ensuring that there were no civilian casualties.
They did nothing during the hold-up, as alarming the robbers would have put lives in danger, but pounced as the men were exiting the outlet. The first man was apprehended after he tripped on the way out, but they were forced to shoot the other in the abdomen after he ignored their orders to surrender his weapon.
They were both arrested and taken to a nearby hospital for treatment, and will now appear before a judge on charges of armed robbery and violence.
