Sometimes it's better to get arrested than face a violent robbery, which was the case of a man in La Churriana de la Vega (Granada) last month.

It was around 04.30h on the 9th of March that the 55-year-old owner of a house in the said town called the Guardia Civil to say that several individuals were trying to break in

A patrol was immediately despatched from the Guardia Civil post in Armilla, arriving just in time to see a van making a quick exit. The vehicle was later found abandoned on a nearby street.

Inside the van officers found a sledge hammer which had been used on the victim’s front door.

But it wasn’t only a badly battered front door that the officers found but also 557 cannabis plants spread around several rooms and an illegal hook-up to an electricity source.

He has been charged on both counts but at least he has no broken bones or worse.

(News: Churriana de la Vega, Granada, Andalucia)