Walter Finch
A TRAVELLER at Ibiza airport underwent an ordeal when he found that his luxury watch had vanished from his belongings tray after going through the scanners.
Having patiently waited in the queue on Friday afternoon, the man placed in the tray his belt and items from his pocket – and his €10,000 watch.
Along with hundreds of other passengers, he passed through the scanners and waited for his property to follow suit.
But to his horror, in the enforced moment of unguardedness the watch had mysteriously vanished.
He immediately alerted the authorities, who looked back at the CCTV footage of the moment in question.
They were able to identify a Spanish man who pilfered it at the opportune moment.
Police quickly tracked the suspect down and stopped him just as he was about to board his flight. When they searched him, they found the watch already strapped to his wrist.
It was then returned to its rightful owner and the culprit arrested.
The incident highlights a concerning trend of thefts at Spanish airports.
In a recent high-profile case, 14 workers at Tenerife South Airport were arrested for stealing valuables worth nearly €2 million from passengers’ checked luggage last month.
The stolen items included 29 luxury watches, 22 high-end smartphones, and 120 pieces of jewellery??. These thefts reportedly occurred during luggage handling, with suspects forcibly opening suitcases to remove valuables.
Just a handful of months earlier, in August 2023, there was another shocking theft at Barcelona’s El Prat Airport.
A Hermes Birkin bag containing €8.5 million worth of jewels was stolen at the check-in area. The thieves initially evaded capture but were later located by Catalan police in the city of Girona.
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