The Guardia Civil, with help from the National Police and the local police forces of Orihuela and Albatera in Alicante, arrested two men who are accused of stealing cars to use in home and business robberies that took place in several towns in the provinces of Alicante and Murcia between February 8th and 14th.
A car was taken in the town of San Isidro on February 8th, which was the start of the events. The Guardia Civil said in a statement that officers from the Pinoso station subsequently found the car after stopping a burglary at a country residence in the nearby town of Algueña.In this second case, two males ran away on foot into the woods, leaving behind the stolen car. Two more cars were stolen in Algueña that same night and found a few hours later in Hondón de los Frailes. A fourth car was also stolen at Hondón de los Frailes. After checking out the three recovered cars on site, officers found that all three had the same kind of damage: forced doors, tampered ignition locks, sound equipment that had been moved (but not stolen), and slashed tyres. The Guardia Civil called this detail “unusual and particularly striking,” which showed how the crime was done. The car that was stolen in Hondón de los Frailes was used to rob a petrol station in Archena (Murcia) on February 11th. Two men allegedly stole a tobacco vending machine and loaded it into the car that had been stolen before. They did this by tearing off the store’s entrance door.
Arrests
Finally, it is said that the same car was used in an attempted robbery at a petrol station in Orihuela in the early hours of February 14th. This time, the suspected criminals were not successful because they were caught off guard by numerous patrols from the Orihuela Local Police, who responded to an alarm. When the suspects saw the police, they ran away on foot. The police were after them and were able to catch one of the two suspected attackers. The last car that was found had the same damage as the others, which supports the idea that the same group acted in a certain way, according to the Guardia Civil. Thanks to a lot of work, the second suspect was found and arrested by the Albatera Local Police on February 22nd for these occurrences. The two people who were arrested and then released as they waited for their trial are charged with four charges of stealing or using a car without permission and three counts of breaking into houses and businesses. All of the stolen cars were returned to their owners, save for one that was found burnt out. The operation, which was headed by the ROCA Team of Ibi and supported by the municipal police forces of Orihuela and Albatera and the National Police of Orihuela, has come to an end. But it’s still possible that the people that were detained were involved in other similar events.
