Police sources confirmed to lavozdelanzarote.com this Monday that at least three complaints have been filed by residents of the municipality of Arrecife who claim to have suffered separate robberies with intimidation and violence during the past weekend.
The National Police say they are aware of three specific crimes of this nature, but only the accounts of some residents and eyewitnesses of the events claim that one of the perpetrators committed two of these robberies.
Sources from the Local Police Station of the National Police Corps of Arrecife indicate that one of these robberies was committed on Porra Street in the capital of Lanzarote, in front of the Arrecife Gran Hotel, last Friday, September 9th, at around 11:00 PM.
According to the complaint filed by a resident originally from Ecuador, a tall individual assaulted him from behind while he was walking, grabbing him by the neck while another individual stole his wallet, which contained 70 euros and some documents. The National Police assures that they are carrying out various efforts to identify both individuals, of whose descriptions there is abundant data. One of them, apparently, is a male, 35 years old and 1.90 m tall.
The second of the robberies described by police sources occurred last Saturday, September 10th, at around 1:45 AM, on Mancomunidad Avenue in Arrecife. According to the complainant's account, he was alone, smoking in the middle of the public road, when an individual approached him and started a conversation. According to the victim, the aggressor began to confess that he had just been in jail, and proposed to exchange his mobile phone for a certain amount of drugs. According to the complainant, after refusing the deal, the individual brandished a knife and threatened to slash him if he did not give him the phone, which he finally snatched away."
In the third robbery with violence and intimidation, and which does coincide with the account given by the residents, an individual tried to snatch a woman's purse when she was about to get into her car with the purse under her arm, in the vicinity of Pérez Galdós Street.
According to the complaint, there was a struggle in which the victim was assisted by two girls who helped her recover the purse, although they could not prevent the assailant from hitting the woman on the chest, who had to go to the Valterra health center after suffering various injuries and a serious state of shock reflected in the corresponding medical report.
According to the version of several eyewitnesses, the perpetrator of the events left the scene aboard a white Opel Corsa model car, and whose license plate was provided to the National Police.
According to the first indications after the investigations of the National Police, those involved in these robberies are very likely drug addicts, habitual criminals who are successively arrested and who, given the apparent pity of Justice, reoffend day in and day out.
"Even if no items are ultimately stolen, the dangerous situation that citizens suffer is regrettable, and it seems that it is not taken into account when it comes to safely detaining these individuals", said Commissioner Raimundo Villanueva in statements to the radio program Buenos Días Lanzarote, who assured that his men work day by day regardless of judicial decisions.
The witnesses speak
For his part, a resident of the Arrecife neighborhood of Valterra, Manuel García, recounted in the morning a couple of robberies allegedly committed last Sunday and of which he claimed to have been a witness in the vicinity of his neighborhood.
Both events, according to his statements on Radio Lanzarote, occurred successively, one at about 9:30 PM in front of the gas station on Tarragona Street, in the direction of Pérez Galdós Street, and the other minutes later in the vicinity of the Valterra Savings Bank branch, in front of some well-known food stores.
"It was the same criminal, who was in a white Opel Corsa and whose license plate is known to the Police," he said. In the second event, according to this resident's version, the robber got away with the cash that a user had just withdrawn from the ATM.
