National police officers from the police station of the central district of Alicante have arrested a 50-year-old man as the suspected perpetrator of nine frivolous robberies in the central area of the city. The man has been arrested more than a hundred times in Spain, including 70 times for theft, and his activity has focused on hotels and shops frequented by tourists.
According to reports, the operatives of the Operational Response Group (GOR) of the Alicante Central Police Station were requested by the Intelligent Command and Control Coordination Center, Room 091, to a central hotel in the city, in whose cafeteria a bag had been stolen., explained the National Police in an explanation.
A hotel employee had previously discovered the suspected perpetrator and held him until the agents arrived. The police operation ended with the man being transferred to police stations. The detainee was missing documents and his full identification was necessary in order to be able to prepare the report explaining the facts and thus informing the court.
In parallel with these efforts, the Alicante Central District Criminal Police Task Force set about carrying out checks and comparisons with various complaints on which it was working. They were all linked to robberies in hotels and similar establishments in the central area of the capital.
When viewing images from surveillance cameras, officers confirmed that the perpetrator of these incidents was a man with the same characteristics as the person identified by Citizen Security call signs.
Eight additional incidents were thus confirmed in which the same person appeared to have acted by stealing all kinds of personal items out of carelessness, acting mainly in public establishments during rush hours to avoid detection.
What influences the most is what happens next. So you don't miss anything, subscribe.
Subscribe to
The items he allegedly stole included bags, high-end cell phones, sunglasses and eyeglasses, cash, documents, sets of keys and other items that any citizen can carry. Many of their victims were tourists who were left without their documents in a country that was not their own, making it difficult for them to return or even stay in Spain.
Tourist clothing and friendly welcome
According to investigators, this person was “a career criminal” and disguised himself as a tourist, “which allowed him to go completely unnoticed in a city like Alicante.” The National Police have highlighted the “naturalness” with which the person who entered the establishments behaved “to greet friendly staff (whom he did not know) in order to convey their trust”.
In addition, he apparently acted whenever tourists were relaxing while eating or shopping and he took the opportunity to commit thefts. He usually used a distraction device, called a crutch in police parlance, to conceal the maneuver that gave him access to someone else's property.
The National Police have focused on “the great practice of this itinerant criminal who had previously acted in other areas of the country,” with more than 100 arrests, including 70 thefts.
The detainee, of Moroccan nationality, was placed at the disposal of the Investigative Court of the Guard of Alicante.