The Santander Bank in Almuñécar was targeted yesterday morning and 115,000 euros taken in booty; the thieves didn't even bother diguising themselves.

It was 13.20h with not long before closing that two people entered into this bank on the Paseo del Altillo.

Inside the bank, one of them (they were a man and a woman) began asking a bank clerk a lot of questions to the point of trying the employee’s patience.

Then, with the employee distracted by this behaviour, the accomplice who was pretending to be a customer in the queue, pounced on the clerk whilst she was refilling the cashpoint with 10,000 euros. No attempt was made to mask their identities.

One of the male staff ran after one of the thieves and managed to catch and hold onto one of her until the Guardia Civil arrived.

The other thief managed to escape on foot and then jump into a car parked near the Paseo del Altillo

The thieves were not armed, hence it not being a “robbery” but rather a case of “theft.”

Guardia Civil began an operation to track down the criminals, thanks to the CCTV images and descriptions given by eyewitnesses. The gang member being held in police holding cells has not cooperated in identifying the accomplice.

UPDATE: There is confusion over the actual quantity taken because two figures are mentioned. One of the two, and elderly woman, distracted the woman who was loading another 10,000 euros into the cashpoint (ATM) machine by asking her endless questions. The other thief took advantage of the bank clerk being distracted to remove the cash container within the machine, so with the 10,000 just put in, the total in the cash box taken was 115,000 euros, according to the bank. The person restrained was the elderly accomplice whilst the younger male managed to escape once he reached his park car near the Paseo del Altillo.

(News: Almunecar, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)