Almost 25 years ago, a gold-plated weather vane disappeared from the Bessan village in southwestern France – now a repentant thief has returned the iron weathervane by mail, as the Public Prosecutor's Office explained on Tuesday. The Florensac gendarmerie identified the thief who removed the gold-plated iron cock from a cross on April 1, 1999, it said. Rafael Balland, the prosecutor of Béziers.
He is a man born in 1975 who confessed to the robbery, committed for fun on a drunken night. After that, he didn't dare return it until he recently discovered the item in a hiding place in his basement, the prosecutor said, without revealing the identity of the perpetrator.
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However, he can no longer be criminally prosecuted because his crime has expired. The Public Prosecutor's Office therefore closed the case.
The weather vane reappeared at the end of November – in a postal package addressed to “Monsieur Gallinacé” (German: Mr. Huhn), which was sent to the local historian Michel Sabatery was delivered.
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Sabatéry “was kind enough” to inform the municipality upon receipt of the package, which in turn called the Public Prosecutor's Office, said the mayor of Bessan, Stephane Pépin-Bonet. They immediately began an investigation, which allowed the sender to be identified. The weather vane was posted at a post office in the same department and the postage was paid by credit card.
The rooster will soon take its old place on the cross again. According to Mayor Pépin-Bonet, this time he should be “properly protected so as not to fly again”.
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“It could be a matter of youthful stupidity and the story has a happy ending,” he said. However, in the small ceremony that marks the return of the weather vane, he will emphasize “that objects of this kind are part of the heritage of this village”.