Five suspects have been arrested by the Guardia Civil for allegedly robbing an 80-year-old man in his home in Sant Joan d’Alacant of a safe containing jewellery and gold bars worth more than 100,000 euros.
Investigators think there might be a sixth individual engaged in these occurrences. She is a woman who took care of the old man and left Spain on a flight to Honduras before the complaint was made, so she couldn’t be caught.
Sources from the armed institute said that the court has been told about this scenario and that the right steps have been done to try to find the carer, who is the main suspect, as part of this operation dubbed Golder.
The incidents happened on December 10th, when the elderly man was taken to the Sant Joan d’Alacant University Hospital with the help of this woman. The next day, she is said to have called a friend to talk about the robbery.
Later, the carer, her companion, and a third woman went to the residence. They couldn’t get the safe open, so they called the husband of one of them, who came with a car. The Guardia Civil said in a statement that they all worked together to move the large safe to his residence in Alicante.
Once they were away from the residence, another man helped them open the safe. There were gold bars and jewellery worth more than €100,000 inside. A third man is said to have sold some of the stolen jewellery to precious metals traders in the province of Alicante, and the gold bars are said to have been brought into the black market.
A few days later, the old man begged his carer to bring him a ring he had taken off before being sent to the hospital. The woman said she couldn’t find it, which made the victim suspicious because he knew she knew exactly where he had put it.
The old guy fired the carer after they got into a fight. He told her to give him the keys to the house and leave. Later, he found out that the safe was gone from the closet where it had been placed. That’s when he told his daughter what had happened.
The carer fled Spain
Before the complaint was made and the investigating unit found out what happened, the carer flew from Spain to Honduras. The Guardia Civil says they tried to find her, but they couldn’t catch her.
During the inquiry, police found many items of jewellery that had been sold at stores that deal in precious metals. The arrests happened at Sant Joan d’Alacant on February 17th and 18th. The five people who were arrested are all from Honduras and are thought to have been involved in the crimes.
Two of the people who were arrested were wearing gold bracelets at the time of the arrest. These bracelets were recognised as part of the things that were stolen from the elderly victim’s safe.
The five people were detained for allegedly breaking into a house with a fake key. They were also members of a criminal group, and the victim was in a vulnerable position. The case file and the detainees have been sent to the right court, which has ordered their release.
“Special vulnerability”
The Main Station of Sant Joan d’Alacant’s Investigation Area looked into the crime and found that it was made worse by “abuse of trust” because the victim had put all her trust in her carer, who presumably used the keys to the property to help with the robbery.
Additionally, the Guardia Civil has made it clear that the elderly man was in a “special vulnerability” situation because of his age and hospitalisation. The six people involved in the crime worked together to break into the house, move and open the safe, and sell the stolen items, which is a typical way for an organised criminal group to operate.
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