‘A criminal gang stole £20k worth of racing bikes from our Airbnb in France'
Dear Katie,
We booked an 11-bedroom property in France through Airbnb for a cycling trip during the Paris-Roubaix weekend in April. What should have been a memorable sporting holiday turned into a distressing ordeal involving burglary, unsafe accommodation and what we feel is a complete failure of Airbnb's much-advertised AirCover protection.
Before our arrival, we informed the host that 14 guests would be bringing bicycles, and asked about secure storage. Upon arrival, we discovered that the property's deadlock was jammed and inoperable. My husband phoned the host, who promised a locksmith would attend the next day.
However, that night we awoke at 3am to find the front door wide open. To our horror, we found that five bikes, a camera and a set of van keys had been stolen. Luckily, someone in our party had thought to place an AirTag on one of the bikes, and we subsequently recovered three of them by confronting the thieves ourselves.
The police, who arrived heavily armed and in body armour, confirmed forced entry and advised us to leave immediately, warning that the gang might return. But Airbnb delayed our relocation, refusing to cover the cost for all guests.
After hours of phone calls and having a front door that wouldn't lock, and us needing to guard the property physically, Airbnb finally agreed to let us find our own hotel. We had to pay upfront for alternative accommodation, and were later partially reimbursed.
However, when we submitted claims for the stolen items, and other losses under Airbnb's AirCover policy, its insurer denied liability, citing 'forced entry', which effectively absolved the host and, by extension, Airbnb, of responsibility.
We feel Airbnb's decision not to compensate us for the two bikes and the camera that remain lost directly contradicts its own promise of '$1m liability insurance' for stolen belongings where the host is liable.
We feel our experience raises serious questions about Airbnb's AirCover policy. Its insurer initially claimed it didn't handle theft claims at all, until we sent them Airbnb's own terms.
To date, we are still over £10,000 out of pocket. Airbnb's promises of guest protection and responsive support have proven hollow, and we feel we deserve better. Despite repeated attempts to contact them, Airbnb has ignored our emails and failed to address our concerns about the way we have been treated.
– KW, via email
Dear KW,
You faced a terrifying ordeal when you awoke to shuffling sounds coming from downstairs, and you were met face to face with a group of robbers armed with spanners. They made off with some bikes and other valuables, but thankfully, you caught them before they could steal some of your group's more valuable bikes, which were worth as much as £10,000 each.
After calling the police, you were startled when they arrived at around 7.30am fully armed with weapons. Apparently, they told you this street you were staying on was notorious for break-ins, as organised crime was rife in the area. Naturally, this frightened the life out of you all and made you want to leave immediately.
If this area was as rife with crime as the police had said, then it struck me as deeply irresponsible of the host to allow guests to stay at this property without a sufficiently secure front door. A door with a latch and a functioning deadlock is the bare minimum one would expect at a rental property, and in fact, many insurers insist on front doors having this level of security for valid cover to be put in place.
This front door did have a deadlock, but upon arrival at the property, you quickly realised it was temperamental. You messaged the host to let them know it was dangerous. He replied saying someone would come in the morning, but of course, by then it was too late.
You also say you were provided with no key to the front door, just a four digit PIN which you were asked not to share with anyone, making you wonder whether it was ever changed between guest stays.
Once the police had inspected the break-in, you say you were told that it looked as though the property had been broken into previously, which sent chills down your spine. You phoned Airbnb to report the incident and ask it to move you to another property, but by the sounds of it, it was initially rather useless.
Following my involvement, you have now been fully refunded for your replacement hotel, and Airbnb has offered to reimburse the additional expenses you incurred 'as a goodwill gesture', including the van recovery and replacement key, train tickets and event entry fees.
This amounts to around £6,000 in total, which will help make up for the £10,000 losses your group incurred as a result of the robbery. However, it still leaves you out of pocket by around £4,000 for the actual items stolen.
You rightly point out that part of Airbnb offers cover for guests' stolen belongings in the rare event that their host is found liable for the incident. You made an AirCover claim which was reviewed by an independent adjudicator, but unfortunately they decided that the host was not liable for the claim.
However, Airbnb has refused to disclose the full reasons for this decision, and has not sent you the adjudicator's report to examine, or given you the opportunity to appeal the decision.
When I asked it for more information, it told me it had not received any evidence that the host confirmed there was anywhere for you to store the bikes after you told it in advance that you were bringing them, or that they described the lock as temperamental, or that they offered to call a locksmith.
I told Airbnb that I couldn't see that any of this was reasonable evidence proving that the host was not liable for failing to install basic security on the property's front door, which ultimately left your bikes and camera vulnerable in the attack.
I was left feeling concerned that the adjudicator's assessment of the situation had been sloppy, and that Airbnb wasn't interested in digging deeper to establish the true picture. To make matters worse, Airbnb refused to speak to me over the phone about the issue, insisting on email communication only, which only deepened my fears.
So with Airbnb digging its heels in over the remaining money, those in your party whom the bikes and camera belonged to are now forced to claim on their home insurance, which will result in higher premiums for them. This seems unfair given the circumstances, and Airbnb's reticence to discuss the nitty gritty here has left me feeling uncomfortable to say the least.
I'm sorry you're still disappointed with the outcome, but I have done all I can here with the limited information I've been given.
An Airbnb spokesman said: 'Our host liability protection provides up to $1m in coverage in the rare event a guest's belongings are stolen or damaged during a stay and the host is found liable. In this case, the third-party adjuster investigated and did not find the host liable for this incident.
'However, we were sorry to hear about this experience, and as a gesture of goodwill, in addition to refunding the guests for their hotel, we have offered a reimbursement for additional expenses incurred.'
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The Guardian
5 hours ago
- The Guardian
‘A lot of money to be made': Paris hit with spate of €1m handbag heists
A series of million euro robberies of luxury handbags from boutiques and brand headquarters in Paris has shown that high-value leather goods are now a bigger target for organised criminals than jewels or cash, as French police pursue sophisticated gangs targeting designer bags. Paris has seen several high-profile robberies of handbags over the past year, fuelled by the growing global demand for designer leather goods which are increasingly being displayed by influencers on social media. As designer handbags sell for record prices at auction – with the late singer Jane Birkin's Hermès bag fetching €8.6m (£7.4m) this summer — prices are rising in boutiques and second-hand bags are gaining value as collectors' items. Jérôme Lalande, an expert on leather goods at the Paris appeals court, said demand for designer handbags was currently so high that the second-hand market was flourishing, making bags very easy to sell on. 'There's a lot of money to be made,' he said. 'Handbags have come to represent social status.' Last month, the Paris showroom of Houlux, a broker of second-hand designer bags that sells by appointment only, was robbed in a dawn raid. Burglars climbed up to a fourth-floor balcony and in less than 20 minutes took more than a hundred luxury bags by brands including Hermès, Dior, Louis Vuitton and Chanel, estimated to be worth a total of €1m. A few days later, the offices of the luxury brand Louis Vuitton in central Paris were broken into just after midnight by two masked men who broke down an inside door and took a large number of bags, reported to have been worth more than €1m. In May, a large number of handbags were stolen from a Louis Vuitton boutique on Paris's Boulevard Saint-Germain after a car was ram-raided into the shopfront in the early hours of the morning, allowing the robbers to enter the store and clear the shelves. It was the third such ram-raid on the boutique in only nine months. 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In January, an employee carrying out a stock inventory in central Paris for LVMH, the conglomerate that owns Louis Vuitton and many other luxury brands, discovered 50 handbags by the label Loewe, worth about €100,000, were missing. Examination of CCTV footage showed two suspects had entered the building one night before Christmas and exited carrying six large sacks believed to contain the bags. Last year, a Chanel shop on Avenue Montaigne in central Paris was ram-raided by a car and robbers escaped with bags worth between €500,000 and €1m. In 2024, an influencer who specialised in luxury handbags and posted photographs of herself posing with her bags in Paris locations, saw her home targeted by thieves who stole items including bags worth between €20,000 and €30,000. Earlier this year, Paris criminality returned to global headlines when a group of men who in 2016 robbed the US reality TV star Kim Kardashian of her jewellery, including a £3m 18.88-carat diamond engagement ring from her then husband Kanye West, were found guilty after a high-profile trial. But Carreau said jewellery heists in Paris had dropped significantly to one or two each year because high-value jewellery pieces, which were often unique 'works of art', were hard to resell on the blackmarket. He said luxury bags, on the other hand, were easier to sell on. 'The resale is happening on second-hand sales sites. Some of the bags are transported abroad and sold the same way across Europe,' he said. This was fuelled by the growing trend for acquiring luxury bags spreading across different levels of society and becoming much more commonplace, Carreau said. 'Forty years ago these bags were marginal, now the fashion for luxury is much more widespread.' The first six months of 2025 showed a marked drop in crime in general in Paris compared with the previous year: armed robberies were down by more than 9%, burglaries by 15% and theft of cars and motorbikes by 14%. Carreau said that raids on expensive handbag boutiques were not a daily occurrence in Paris but they had a spectacular impact because sometimes videos by onlookers who witnessed events had circulated on social media. Lalande, the appeals court expert, said: 'A classic Chanel bag that was €5,000 in a boutique five years ago can now cost €10,000 in a boutique. So alongside those shop prices, the second-hand prices have also risen … There is a global demand – from Beijing to Dubai, New York to Paris and London.' Lalande said bags were relatively easy to re-sell because they couldn't be traced as easily as watches or jewels. He had seen a shift in criminals' focus on bags over the past 25 years. 'Twenty years ago, I was contacted because a [Hermès] crocodile Kelly bag was stolen from a woman in Paris. The bag was later found in a bin with her wallet that had been emptied. Years ago, a bag would be stolen for its contents. Today the target is the bag itself.'
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Daily Mail
QUENTIN LETTS: How CAN today's kids experience the summers of adventure we did if Mum is spying on them with trackers in their trainers?
High August is when childhood's freedoms are forged. The school holiday stretches to the horizon, offering endless scope for adventure. While parents continue to work, youngsters have days to fill as they please. It's Liberty Hall. But for how much longer? An American shoe company has come up with the idea of inserting Apple AirTags inside trainers. Wherever children are, parents will be able to track them. 'Feel secure with new Skechers AirTag compatible shoes,' runs the advert for these £55 trainers. They come with a hidden compartment in the heels, which can accommodate a £35 metal disc the size of a clock battery. These use Bluetooth to connect to Apple computers. The rest is pure Orwell. From breakfast to bedtime, parents will know exactly where their offspring (or at least their training shoes) are. Children will be as trackable as convicts wearing ankle monitors. 'What a good idea,' some people may say. 'If James Bulger had been wearing such a device, he might still be alive.' The fate of the two-year-old, missing for two days in 1993 before his murdered body was found, was indeed dreadful. And yet my instincts bridle at these Skechers shoes. Dreadful tragedies should not make us surrender the valuable things in life. Growing up in a Gloucestershire market town half a century or so ago, my summer holidays were a time of burgeoning independence. My parents were often busy. They ran a boarding school and there was plenty for them to do, even outside term-time. So my brother Alexander and I had to find our own entertainment. We would go down to a nearby spinney called The Wilderness and dam a brook or hunt for snakes. Alexander had an air rifle and we would shoot pellets at the neighbours' washing, hoping to put holes in poor Mr Linter's underpants as they dried on the line. We earned a few bob by washing cars at the well-to-do houses. No one ever said, 'Does your mother know where you are?' In those days, people were less anxious about such things. Sometimes Alexander went to stay with a friend his own age (he was four years older than me) and I was left to my own devices. Aged eight, I would go for four-mile bicycle trips to Kemble, to stand on the railway bridge and watch blue InterCity trains rush past. It wasn't quite The Railway Children but it kept me occupied. Locomotives were not the sole attraction. There were blackberries in the hedgerows, dusty and sour but one still ate them. There was also the agreeable palaver of unpacking the picnic my mother had made – a big, flour-dusted bap from Ann's Pantry and some boring apple, which I would give to a pony near Siddington. As a child, I was mad about cars. In my imagination, my bicycle became a gleaming roadster and I would make double de-clutch noises as I pedalled the lanes. Lorries from a gravel pit used the route and I was frightened of them, so would wait on the verge while they passed. Other days I would cycle into town – the wicked metropolis of Cirencester – and spend fruitless hours fishing in the River Churn. I remember, when about ten, stopping at Trinder's newsagent's to buy a packet of No 6 cigarettes. Miss Ellis, the counter assistant, sold them without demur. In great secrecy I tried one of those cigs and thought it disgusting. The packet was discarded. Throughout boyhood, I was given freedom to roam. At Woolworths, buying sweets, I grandly said, 'Keep the change', to the woman on the till. She kindly told me to keep it for a rainy day. Looking back, one no doubt romanticises it. I may have cycled to Kemble only a couple of times. That brook in The Wilderness was little more than a dribbling spring. Those frightening lorries probably decelerated at the sight of a boy on his bicycle and gave me a wide berth. And I bet my mother often had a rough idea of what her boys were doing. But we did not know that. 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Anyway, those reined children, when they get home and look at their mobiles, will probably face greater dangers online than anything that might have been waiting to jump out at them from the bushes on Wandsworth Common. Life is full of potholes and children must learn to assess their own risks. If you wish to give a modern health and safety inspector an attack of the vapours, try mentioning the old game of 'chicken'. Children of my generation would lie on the road and move only at the last minute before a car passed. My friend Willy Price and I used to risk our necks by riding our bicycles down a steep woodland slope at the back of his garden in Hereford. At lunchtime, Willy's mother would ask if we had been behaving ourselves and we would assure her we had been angels. Mrs Price was a wise woman and I doubt she believed a word. As a child, would you have wanted your parents to monitor your every movement? Might you not have reached into that heel compartment and thrown the snooping device into August's long grass? Might you not have kicked off your shoes and scampered away barefoot? Children must be allowed to navigate life's dangers without Mummy and Daddy forever fussing over them. Let's give these Skechers shoes the boot. l NUNC! by Quentin Letts is published by Constable.
The Sun
2 days ago
- The Sun
I met shameless ‘vampire cannibal' who fried human flesh in pan… confession about evil murder chilled me to the core
LEADING murder suspect Nicolas Claux into his Parisian apartment, investigators recoiled in disgust at the horrors that lurked inside - with one fleeing the scene to be violently sick. Jars containing the remains of human foetuses lined shelves, the fridge was stocked with bags of blood, and an 'altar' constructed out of skulls and bones adorned one of the walls. 13 13 The then 22-year-old had been arrested in 1994 outside the French capital's famous Moulin Rouge cabaret following a month-long manhunt, after he shot restaurateur Theirry Bisonet, 34, in the head multiple times. Claux had posed as a 16-year-old on a sex forum to find someone to kill, and planned to carve off chunks of 'meat' from his body to consume, but was disturbed and fled. The chilling discovery in his flat led to him being unmasked as a murderous cannibal - dubbed 'The Vampire of Paris' - who took sick pleasure in eating the flesh of humans. His decade-long macabre obsession with the dead saw him break into crypts, mausoleums and coffins to steal grisly souvenirs including a skull. This twisted fantasy would develop into cutting strips of flesh from dead people while working as a hospital mortician, and eating it raw or taking it home to fry up in a pan. Claux was jailed for 12 years in May 1997 for murdering Thierry - but was released after eight. As part of our Meeting a Monster series, The Sun tracked down killer Claux - who now claims to be a reformed character who is no longer a threat to society, and spends his time writing books about psychopaths and serial killers. But chillingly he admits he is "still the same person I was 30 years ago". He also brazenly brags about going on to work in morgues for 13 years after his release from prison by using "forged papers", and was only discovered after several years each time. During our unnerving chat, Claux, now 53, says he is "relieved" he was arrested for killing Thierry because he suspects, had he got away with his vile crime, he would have likely gone on to commit mass murder. Pathetic last days of Rose West revealed as serial killer monster can barely walk, has no friends & has new fake identity 'I'm glad the police caught me because I was already planning my next murder, just days after the killing, because the first didn't go the way I planned," he confesses. 'I was close to killing my morgue co-workers. I wanted to kill them one by one because I couldn't stand them. I had a really short fuse back then. 'I was escalating so fast, had a total disregard for human life, and absolutely no limits. One investigator said I had the same evil look in my eyes as a French serial killer, Thierry Paulin. 'Before I'd learned to wear a 'mask of sanity', as they say in American Psycho, but after the killing that was no longer the case. If I wasn't caught then, now I'd be dead or in prison for the rest of my life.' 13 Claux's morbid fascination with the occult began at just seven years old, after being exposed to explicitly violent photos and reading books about scarification, blood rituals and demons. He recalls being obsessed with photos from Thailand 's infamous Wang Saen Suk Hell Garden, which depicts different torments inflicted upon sinners in hell. 'They were extremely graphic - people being mutilated, having their tongues pierced, tortured and killed. I asked to see these images over and over again,' says Claux. I was close to killing my morgue co-workers. I wanted to kill them one by one because I couldn't stand them. I had a really short fuse back then. I was escalating so fast, had a total disregard for human life, and absolutely no limits Nicolas Claux Bizarrely he claims it helped him bond with his 'cold and distant' IT developer dad, but in turn it 'cultivated and nurtured a fascination with pain, demonology and the torments of hell'. Claux says his father, who often worked overseas, and mother - who was hospitalised with depression multiple times - were concerned by his 'peculiar interests' but too fixated on their own problems to steer him towards something less sinister. Consuming dark material gave Claux a thrill but also made him feel 'like an alien' compared to other children his age, who loved football, and he struggled to connect with them. One of his only friends was his grandfather, who died when he was 10. Stood beside his coffin at the wake, Claux says his 'senses were overwhelmed' and it felt like there was a "mystical revelation' inside of him. 'I knew I was witnessing something extraordinary, and paradoxically the presence and feeling close to death made me feel alive,' he explains. That feeling would years later lead him to visit graveyards, break into mausoleums and work in morgues, in a sick attempt to reignite 'the thrill of being so close to death'. 'Fantasies about killing' 13 13 13 At 12 years old Claux came across gruesome photographs of the mutilated victim of Issei Sagawa - known as the Kobe cannibal - in a magazine. The Japanese student murdered his classmate Renée Hartevelt in Paris in 1981, before consuming parts of her flesh and performing necrophilia. 'The magazine was removed from sale very quickly but it showed photos of the victim lying on the morgue slab with most of her flesh missing,' Claux says. 'It awakened something inside of me, a fixation and intrusive thoughts that encouraged these violent ruminations and dreams of doing the same.' When Claux was a teenager his family relocated to Portugal, which resulted in him feeling even more isolated - and fed his obsession with the occult. 'There was a lot of hatred inside of me, feelings of rejection and isolation,' he says. 'I found a violent outlet, fantasising about killing people my age, and I started forming plans. There was a lot of hatred inside of me, feelings of rejection and isolation... I found a violent outlet, fantasising about killing people my age, and I started forming plans Nicolas Claux 'I was bullied because I didn't speak their language. They spread rumours that I killed animals, which I didn't. I couldn't stand them, I just wanted to kill them all. 'I was actually close to doing it too, but each time something went wrong. Once a knife fell out of my backpack at school and the extremely concerned principal warned my parents.' The family moved back to France where Claux spoke to a psychiatrist, but his warped mind was worsening. By 17 he was regularly breaking into mausoleums and crypts at Paris's Pere Lachaise cemetery, opening coffins and stealing bones for 'decorations'. 'I created this altar with my collection of bones, a few skulls and urns filled with human ashes, I never returned anything,' Claux says. 'It was a place I would truly feel myself, living under the shadow of death. I began using satanic imagery and reading occult books. It was later called devil worship.' Feasting on flesh 13 This longing to be closer to death led him, after 10 months of compulsory national service in the army in 1992, to work in a hospital morgue. There he began tampering with the labels of blood bags so he could take them home to drink - a twisted habit that gave him "a rush' and eventually saw him go a step further and consume dead people's flesh. 'When left alone in the morgue, I would cut up strips of tissue from the abdominal cavity under the ribs and put them in plastic containers,' Claux admits. 'I was eating them raw at first, but then I realised how easily I could take them home to try different things and cook them. I mainly used to fry them. 'It was like cocaine to me and in a psychological aspect, by ingesting flesh, it made me feel totally disconnected from everybody else - like I was a different species, I wasn't human anymore." I was eating [strips of human tissue] raw at first, but then I realised how easily I could take them home to try different things and cook them. I mainly used to fry them Nicolas Claux Chillingly, he adds: 'I never felt any remorse or empathy towards other people back then. My brain was wired differently. "I didn't put any value in human life. Everyone was like cattle that could be slaughtered and eaten.' Claux says he consumed flesh once a week over a five-month period, defiling up to 21 people's bodies - all without their families' knowledge. At 22, his fantasies progressed to killing. He found his victim through Minitel, a forerunner to online chat forums accessible via telephone lines, inspired by his then girlfriend, an 18-year-old professional dominatrix who posed as a 16-year-old on there because clients would pay more for her services. Using a fake ID, Claux went to the public library to access the system and contacted restauranteur Thierry Bissonnier, 34, a closeted gay man. 'I said I was 16 and within two hours I had his address, went to his place and shot him several times in the head,' Claux says, coldly. 'I wanted to shoot someone and bring the 'meat' back to my place, but it didn't go how I wanted it to... my .22 calibre gun made too much noise. "I heard someone running fast in the stairwell and feared they were calling the police. I didn't have time to do what I was there for and I ran." Costly mistake Sickeningly, having forged his ID, Claux then tried to use one of his victim's cheques to purchase a camera to photograph his next murder. Thankfully it proved a costly mistake, as the shopworker realised it wasn't legitimate and called the police - meaning they had Claux's photo connected to the name of the victim. His face was plastered across Paris Metro stations, and he spent a month-and-a-half on the run before police finally collared him outside a nightclub. Recalling his arrest, Claux says: 'On the way, police were talking about a football match that happened a few days before. For them it was a normal case. But when they opened my apartment door, the mood changed dramatically. 'They were extremely silent during the search. The place was filled with bones, I had human foetuses that I stole from the morgues, and the fridge was full with stuff. 'I didn't have human meat inside it anymore, but I still had some blood bags that I had taken from the hospital. They found all sorts in there. 'It was too much for them. Some were silent with unease, others were disgusted, and one needed to leave the room to be sick." 'No limits' 13 All but one of five psychiatrists concluded Claux had a personality disorder, with hints he suffered from psychosis, but not severely enough for him to be found unfit for trial. Claux agrees with their reports on his mental state, and tells us he was 'disconnected from the world, lacked emotions and had a total disregard for human life'. 'I had absolutely no limits with what I was doing and was escalating so fast, without thinking of the consequences,' he adds. 'Feeling so hyped up while eating flesh, drinking blood, I felt like I had superhuman powers and felt down when I wasn't doing it regularly. There is a psychotic element there.' Claux insists he is now able to control his urges without committing crimes, and claims reflection and introspection helped him battle his demons. 'I make different decisions now and I do not believe I pose a threat to society,' he tells us. 'I wouldn't do the things I did again. 'The intrusive thoughts are long gone. I know my limits and found a better outlet for my dark thoughts. I don't want to go down that spiral again.' Chilling confession Claux says he manages his 'urges' through other means now, including collecting occult items and writing books. He's penned 26 books so far and has one in the works about Sergey Golovkin, Moscow's worst Soviet-era serial killer. He says readers "love" the fact he understands murderers' minds first-hand - and also claims to have dissuaded others from going down the same twisted, murderous path he did. Yet he makes a disturbing admission, adding: 'I could have the same public image, 'I've repented, I'm morally pure, so I deserve to be treated like a human being,' but I don't. 'I'm still the same person I was 30 years ago, but now I've learned to express things in a different way. "Maybe that sounds disturbing but it's sincere. And if I can help a few people, who recognise themselves in what I said, then this all has meaning and purpose. I'm trying to show them there is another way. 'Mine isn't a redemption story or black and white. It's shades of grey. "People may call me a monster but I have to find a place in this society - even if some don't want me to. 'I can function without hurting people. I know violence will lead to war and then we lose. Society will win by indefinitely locking us in prison or a mental hospital. 'I'm not going to hurt anyone or commit crimes. It's a survival instinct. I want to survive, I want to remain free and I don't want to go back to prison.' 13 13 13
