LEUCATE, France, Dec 29 (Reuters) - When thieves stole three tonnes of oysters from French shellfish farmer Christophe Guinot, he came up with a solution: planting secret notes inside oyster shells to help police track down the thieves.
Since Guinot put the method in place in 2016, he says there have been no new oyster thefts on his farm. "It has had a dissuasive effect," the 60-year-old, from Leucate in southern France, told Reuters.
Oysters are lucrative: at the celebrated Chez Francoise restaurant in central Paris, a dish of six high-grade oysters costs 24 euros ($27). Demand is highest over the festive period, also the busiest time for thieves.
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Guinot farms oysters in a coastal lagoon near France's border with Spain. The shellfish are reared in cages, attached by wires to a metal frame that stops them drifting away. Thieves take a boat out to the cages and pluck them from the water.
1/4 French oyster farmer Christophe Guinot shows a note left in an empty shell to warn customers they are buying from thieves, near Leucate, southern France, December 28, 2021. Picture taken December 28, 2021. REUTERS/Alexandre Minguez Read More
Guinot's solution: take an empty oyster shell, insert a tiny rolled-up note, glue the shell back together and drop it into the cage. The note tells whoever opens the shell that they have won their own weight in oysters, and invites them to call to claim their prize.
Anyone claiming their prize could be asked where they bought the oysters, and if it was not from somewhere that Guinot supplies, he could set the police on the trail of the thieves.
Fellow producers from the area followed his example and also planted notes among their oysters. So far no one has claimed the prize from Guinot himself, though some had been claimed from neighbouring farms, he said. In at least some cases, the prizewinners had been sold stolen oysters, and police were alerted.
Word has spread and appears to have created a deterrent effect: after 19 oyster thefts in the area in 2017, there were none in 2020, according to the French Interior Ministry.
Reporting by Alexandre Minguez Writing by Manuel Ausloos and Christian Lowe Editing by Peter Graff
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Akilou on January 2nd, 2022 at 04:22 UTC »
But they'll eventually get someone who legitimately bought their oysters and they'll owe them their weight. I don't understand how this plan doesn't backfire.
EarhornJones on January 2nd, 2022 at 03:27 UTC »
This seems like it would be very easily foiled, and cause some customer inconvenience.
If I'm an oyster thief, and I've heard of this plan (by reading an article on the Internet, for example), I'd simply keep stealing oysters and throw the notes away.
Alternately, I'd just go claim the ticket and claim to have purchased the oyster from someone he supplies.
Similarly, if I'm paying $27 for 6 oysters, getting one that's a glued-together empty shell with a note in it would be a little shitty, even if it led to me getting free oysters later.
bluntsandbears on January 2nd, 2022 at 02:19 UTC »
Why not just glue one with an air tag in each cage in some sort of waterproof container