Cannes '08: John Horn drops a dime on Cannes' crime problem (map)
What's also playing at the Cannes Film Festival? Crime.
Los Angeles Times' John Horn reports that real-life assaults on festival-goers are a serious problem at the swanky seaside event:
"It's a convention of thieves," says Tom Luddy, a co-founder of the Telluride Film Festival. He is speaking from personal experience: His Cannes hotel room and its safe were cleaned out several years ago. "The pickpockets know it's perfect hunting grounds. They must come from all over the world."
"Every villain going who's worth his salt comes," adds Trevor Wright, a sales representative at the Swiss-based Omega Entertainment who was robbed at last year's festival. "The police told me that [criminals] just come in droves . . . [that] there's a massive spike in crime" during the festival.
See the full story here in addition to a crime hot-spot map (above).
-- Sheigh Crabtree
