Staff Reporter
POLICE and a citizen patrol are warning residents of Madrid that late-night thefts are on the rise, as thieves take advantage of revellers who are slightly worse for wear to relieve them of their belongings.
“We are noticing a rise in thefts from people who are coming home after a night of partying,” Alex, spokesperson and founder of the Patrulla Ciudadana de Madrid (Madrid Citizen Patrol), told newspaper El Mundo.
“We are getting a lot of alerts about muggings, or attempted robberies, in our streets in the early hours of the morning,” they added.
“They usually go in pairs or in threes, but no more, so they don’t catch the attention of the police,” said Alex. “They take advantage of their victims when they are walking alone and ‘happy’ to rob them, sometimes using intimidation.
“Other times they steal without the victim even realising,” he added.
Sources from the Policia Nacional confirmed the phenomenon to El Mundo.
“We have arrested a lot of them, all very young, and who would hide the mobile phones in plant pots after stealing them,” the police sources said.
“They sometimes use the ‘Ronaldinho’ technique: approaching their objectives and starting to talk to them about their shoes at the same time that they touch them and grab onto them as if they were playing.
“Once they’re distracted they take advantage of them to take their belongings without them realising given that they are drunk,” they said.
The hotspots for these types of thefts are Teatro Eslava, near the central Puerta del Sol, as well as other bars in the same area, in the Atocha area near the Independance Club, and in the Embajadores and Delicias areas.
