The brazen daytime heist at the Louvre was carried out by petty criminals rather than professionals from the world of organised crime, the Paris prosecutor has said, describing two of the suspects as a couple with children.
The assertion comes two weeks after thieves parked a stolen truck outside the world’s most-visited museum, used a furniture lift to reach the first floor, then smashed their way into one of the museum’s most ornate rooms. Less than seven minutes later, they escaped on scooters with crown jewels worth an estimated €88m (£76m).
If they’re petty criminals, what does that say about Louvre security?
The Louvre employees raised warnings for years about the lack of funds leading to poor security for the employees, the visitors and the collections. https://globalnation.inquirer.net/295647/louvre-heist-lays-bare-museum-security-complaints
They were petty officers.
Petit officers
Is there a term for when a pun just winds up being etymology?
Maybe if they weren’t so petty they would have done their jobs ;)
Yeah, exactly. This article seems to be trying to insult the criminals, but it just makes the Louvre look even worse.
That’s what I thought at first but the headline leaves out “from the world of organized crime.”
It sounds like they are making the distinction between organized crime and thieves operating on their own aka “petty criminals.” The word “petty” has many pejorative connotations but it can also just mean small in scale or scope, and that appears to be the meaning here.
You’re over analyzing this. They’re very likely was a “original headline“ written by the author of the article, then some copywriter or copy editor gotten involved, whose job is to increase clicks and engagement, and so the headline got walked into something more salacious.
You just added more analysis :D
I’m just pointing out the words actually used in the article and what they mean. I’m sure you’re right about how it got this way.