The National Police have arrested a 50-year-old man and his 16-year-old son in Alicante as the alleged perpetrators of two violent robberies committed by snatching purses from three women aged 87, 72 and 46. Two of the victims were injured and ended up in hospital, one suffering a broken hip and the other sustaining a less serious injury.
The minor was admitted to a juvenile detention centre on Monday, 3rd August, after being placed in the custody of the Juvenile Prosecutor’s Office in Alicante, whilst his father appeared in court on Tuesday where the judge ordered his pretrial detention. The National Police are currently investigating the possible involvement of the two arrested individuals in other pending robberies with violence in Alicante.
The father, of Algerian origin and legally residing in Spain after taking advantage of the latest immigration regularisation process, has been charged not only with robbery but also with injuring the two women, aged 87 and 72, by knocking them to the ground. The arrested man already had a prior criminal record.
The incident occurred last Saturday around 11:00 p.m. in Tomás Valcárcel Square in Alicante, in the San Blas neighbourhood. The 091 emergency call centre mobilised patrols after receiving a call from a neighbour who had heard shouting and, upon looking out onto her balcony, saw a man of Arab origin running and getting into a car where another man was waiting for him.
Plainclothes and uniformed officers arrived at the scene and found the two elderly women injured. According to information gathered by the police from the victims, the 50-year-old man, now in custody, approached them with a phone asking for help and then lunged at them, causing them to fall to the ground.
The thief ripped a chain from the 87-year-old woman and fled while the victims called for help. Both women were treated by paramedics and taken by ambulance to the Doctor Balmis General Hospital in Alicante, where they were admitted with symptoms of a broken hip, although it appears only one of them suffered a fracture and the other sustained a less serious injury.
While this service was being carried out and information was being sought about the perpetrator of the robbery, who fled in a car for which they had partial licence plate details, the 091 call centre confirmed that two hours earlier another robbery had occurred against a 46-year-old woman. The victim was assaulted from behind by a young man in shorts who ripped two chains from her neck and fled on foot.
The woman ran after the thief, who dropped one of the two chains before jumping into a car to flee. This victim provided new details about the licence plate, which matched those given by another witness to the purse snatching of the two elderly women. As a result, National Police patrols were mobilised, and one of them located the car parked on Princesa Mercedes Street.
There was no one inside the car, so officers in an unmarked vehicle set up discreet surveillance. Shortly afterward, they saw a man emerge from some bushes and get into the vehicle. A young man in shorts then got into the passenger seat, and when the car tried to drive off, the police pulled it over.
The officers requested the presence of the colleagues who had been with the victims of the two incidents and when they identified themselves as police officers the minor became nervous and spontaneously said that they did not have any chain, that they had been stealing for two days but had not achieved anything because “it doesn’t go well for us”.
The vehicle was inspected and although they did not find the chains, they did seize three mobile phones, a speaker, a watch and a credit card in the name of a different person.
In addition to the robberies with violence and the crime of assault, the arrested father was also charged with driving without a licence.
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