Noise I
Our first article related to excessive noise concerns the town of Pulpí in the province of Almería, where the noise coming from a bar has caused such a disturbance that the case is now up with the Regional Supreme Court. But it is not the bar that has incurred the wrath of our frowning Judges but the Town Hall of Pulpí.
The said Town Hall has to pay out 45,000 euros in compensation to a family, who have put up with decibel bedlam for 15 solid years. Not only did the pub – which only had a licence as a day bar- keep pumping out the noise until the early hours of the morning, but that the decibel reading taken by inspectors registered over 50 decibels. Bear in mind that 25 dB between 23.00 a 7.00 is the maximum that somebody should have to put up with in their bedroom, and 30 dB anywhere else in the house.
The Supreme Court considered that the Town Hall had failed miserably to do anything about it, despite numerous written complaints from the family and even the intervention from the regional ombudsman.
Finally, the Local Police of Pulpí had filled a report where they described the noise in the bar – which was operating illegally – was “prudent and the ambience agreeable with low music,” despite that they were kicking out 56 dB even outside the premises.

Noise II
The next noise-related story is about a student fight in Granada, where a confrontation between the Local Police and the inhabitants of the flat resulted in several police officers being injured. The students described the scene as ‘surreal.’
It all started when the neighbours – also university students – phoned the Local Police at seven in the morning to complain that their studious neighbours had their music loudspeakers hammering out. One of them, whose bedroom was just on the other side of a thin partition wall – had begun hammering on the noisy-neighbours front door and within moments a heated argument had broken out and all the students from both flats were standing in the corridor, arguing, for three quarters of an hour.
Yet for all the calls to reason that were offered, the noisy neighbours insisted in carrying on with their party, and so the Local Police were called.
When the police arrived at the flat of the callers, one policeman said that you could actually see the walls vibrate, so they hammered on the offending front door. The callers went back to bed without seeing what later occurred.
Now, according to the party-going neighbours, they insisted to the eight policemen who had turned up that there was no party and that they had just returned from a night out on the town and wanted to listen to a spot of music.
“They broke our front-door lock and wanted to drag us outside – it just wasn’t normal,” one of them complained. What is more, another student complained that one of the policemen was ‘really pushing his weight around,’ and had turned up with his gloves on, brandishing his truncheon. The students claimed that the policeman’s colleagues had to quieten him down as he had become very agitated. Anyway, a struggle ensued and one policeman had his glasses broken in the tussle.
The police ended up not arresting anybody and the students claimed that the police made more of a scandal than anybody, and that four patrol cars had turned up with the intention ‘looking for a fight.’
Well, it’s a tough life being a student and thanks to this fascist attack against their liberty, it’s a wonder that they manage to get any studying done… bless them.

Noise III
The last article is perhaps the most bizarre because it ended up with a neighbour attacking three men with his teeth because they were making a noise in front of his house. One of the ‘bitten’ is in hospital, awaiting a skin graft for his ear and the other two, who were changing a flat tyre when they were ‘visited’ by Mr. Jaws, are recuperating from their wounds at home.
Some people, when they go off the deep end, shout, flail about with their fists, pull out a knife or gun… or simply turn themselves into a devouring missile of malicious dental intent!. This was the case of the remarkable 29-year-old teeth terrorist – inhabitant of a block of flats in La Zubia, which is an outlying part of the city of Granada.
It was 23.30h on a Friday night when a driver had the misfortune of suffering a flat tyre… right in front of Mr. Gnashville himself. The driver had pulled over in front of a garage – the only available space nearby – and tried to change the wheel by himself, but was unable to, so he phoned his family for them to come and help him out.
The owner of the garage had seen the man below and had asked whether he needed help and received an affirmative reply, so he went down to help out the luckless driver. Soon they were both grunting in their efforts to get the wheel off.
Before long, between the driver, the helpful garage owner and family members, there were eight people engaged in changing the wheel… well, being Spain, there was probably only one and seven offering conflicting advice, but that is beside the point.
Then the Toothy One appeared fifty metres down the street, on the opposite side and began to berate them for the noise. Their chatter continued and they even pointed out that it was nothing to get irate about. Unfortunately, he didn’t agree.
He approached and allegedly launched himself against one of their number, biting his hand, leaving such a wound as to need five stitches – so it was hardly ‘a nibble on a lettuce leaf’ assault.
Before you could say, “I say, steady on, Old Chap,” he launched himself in a blizzard of teeth against another man, savaging his shoulder and drawing blood. By now, most people involved were visibly impressed as well as reasonably concerned about his next action, which didn’t take long to materialise, having by then extracted his cheerful choppers from his second victim. His third victim was attacked with conventional weapons; i.e. his hands and feet, to the relief of all but the object of his attack.
Attracted by the noise – particularly the gnashing sound, no doubt – another neighbour turned up and decided to ‘phone the Guardia Civil, although he might have hesitated and considered phoning the municipal dog pound first…
It was not a wise move, because he was next, and was mildly surprised to find some of his ear missing and teeth marks all over his mobile phone.
Luckily for everybody concerned, the assailant was dentally spent by then and chose to sit on the curb and cry his teeth out… sorry; his eyes out, which is when the Guardia Civil turned up, who gingerly arrested him, keeping extremities well away from the arrested man’s motivated mouth.

Coastal Building Moratorium?
The Regional Ombudsman, José Chamizo, is considering calling for a building freeze along the whole of the coast of Andalucía. He is also calling for a Penal Code reform that would bring tougher judicial retribution of those guilty of urban development offences.
He warned that the ‘exceptional value’ of the coast and its ‘extraordinary fragility’ had been damaged by the ‘massive occupation’ land adjacent to the Zona de Dominio Público Maritima-Terrestre (protected area extending several hundred metres above and below the high-water line). For this reason he considers it necessary to impose a building moratorium along the coast, which would permit the only exception, which would be buildings of public use. The affected areas would be the first 500 metres above the shoreline.
He hoped that such a freeze would give public bodies and the private sector time to decide what kind of urban-development model they want to apply to the future. He also pointed out that despite the slowing of urban expansion due to the economical downturn, parts of the coast have already become unrecognisable. Fortunately, he pointed out, there are still parts of the coast within the province of Cádiz that have escaped the worst ravages of uncontrolled building speculation. His main concern, however, is that the sort of speculation that has taken place along the coast will now be turned against the hinterland.
He complained that despite the Ley de Costas having seen its 20th birthday, around 20% of the coast of Andalucía has still had an official delimitation applied and he thus urges the relevant administration to get its bloody finger out, so to speak.

Granny’s Bank Cards
Six young girls were arrested for using one of their grandmother’s credit cards and ID card to buy goods in shops without the card owner’s consent. The girls, from Granada and Peligros, are all aged between 17 and 21.
Although the girls stole the cards in October, the victim didn’t realise that they were missing until the 22nd of last month. The grandmother made the discovery when she saw on her bankbook that she had been charged 320 euros for a purchase that she had never made.
The Guardia Civil were able to track down the purchases to two gasoline stations and two shops in the centre of Granada, and thanks to the CCTV’s in these premises, they soon nabbed the girls between the 7th and the 11th of November. The camera at the gasoline station recorded the number plate of the car, whose driver had used the missing card to fill the tank. With the number plate, it was a matter of minutes before the police had the name of the first girl arrested.
The granddaughter of the woman had allegedly changed the photo on the ID card to that of her own, as the name almost coincided.
Guess whose name won’t be on Granny’s will as a beneficiary?

Two Young Boys Arrested
The two boys had allegedly destroyed one of the few remaining public phones in the city of Granada, causing damages of around 363 euros, to gain a haul of 1.20 euros – yep, that’s right, one euro, 20 cents. The Public Prosecutor for Minors is recommending a 2-year probation period.
The surge of mobile phone ownership has virtually done away with public pay phones and the ones that do still exist get little use; hence the pittance that was in the cashbox of the telephone cabin.
Finally, if the two youngsters are found guilty, their parents will have to reimburse Telefónica the 363 euros needed to repair the phone.