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)
George: Thank you for your observations but we have updated the articles with more details which clarify your doubts.
Consider the volume and weight of the currency likely to have been taken. In my experience most cash machines default to dispensing higher currency notes usually 50 euro, so 200 euros which could be considered to be a fair amount amount to be withdrawn would make a small bulge in your pocket; 1000 euros would be an average money belt. As you can see from this example 10.000 would be an unlikely amount to be reloading a cash machine unless in small denomination currency. I think 100.000 to be far more likely, otherwise they would be topping up the machine several times a day. Additionally, are serious criminals going to risk their liberty for 10.000? If several people are involved it wouldn’t be worth it for such a small amount, unless the criminals panicked and just made a grab for a small bundle of cash and then ran off.
Paul: you and me both, Paul. The figure of 115,000 was the amount given by the Guardia Civil and yet the sum of 10,000 was also mentioned. I don’t know how much a cashmachine holds but 115,000 does seem a bit steep.
Bad news, at least they got one of them and I am sure The GS will find a way to ‘persuade’ the one they have to cooperate.
But, I am confused with the numbers. You say the member of staff had €10000 to fill the cash machine but the head line says €115000. Who took took the rest and how?