Alex Trelinski
A 49-YEAR-OLD Spanish woman has been arrested by the Policia Nacional for stealing a €1,000 mobile phone from a British tourist in Benidorm.
While she was being detained, the phone rang after being dialled by its owner from the hotel and police returned it back to him.
The Brit was the latest victim of a ‘hugging’ robbery when walking back to his hotel on Monday evening.
He told police that a woman, possibly with a man close by, approached him speaking in English and gave him an affectionate hug.
When he returned to his hotel, he realised that his phone had been pilfered from his pocket.
Hours later early on Tuesday morning a Policia Nacional patrol noticed a woman behaving nervously when she approached them and she threw the phone to the ground in the mistaken belief that the officers might not spot it.
They asked her to prove that the unit was hers but she had no idea of how to operate it or unlock it.
Officers arrested her after examining the phone which was set to English and the screensaver had an image of two men wearing football shirts belonging to an English club.
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