Thieves have been raiding parking meters (is nothing sacred!) in the centre of Granada but now the Policía Nacional have arrested suspects.

They caught three men in the act of looting these endearing devices. All Spaniards and aged between 30 and 45, these scoundrels all have criminal records.

The alleged villains were quickly divested of the tools of trade and their jingling booty. They are suspected of being behind around 50 such acts of vandalism and theft.

Motorists could only weep, disconsolately, when coming upon a raided and out-of-service parking meter, leaving them unable to contribute to the city’s pecuniary needs, much to their chagrin.

The police began keeping an eye on parking meters in the centre of the city in December last year, following an increase in the number of attacks, which took place in the dead of night, when parking meters are at their loneliness.

The fruit of these staking-out operations first lead to the arrest of the 45-year-old suspect around four in the morning. He was standing in front of a meter that had been recently broken into. Upon seeing the officers, he tried to run but was nabbed and a search turned up a screwdriver.

The other two men, aged 30 and 39, were arrested the next night around midnight after the police found them actually forcing a machine; one of them was levering the cashbox open with a screwdriver and his accomplice was using a small, metal bar, once the gap had been widened enough to insert it.

Of course, the amount stolen was laughable compared with the cost of repairing the damages; some parking meters were beyond repair, for instance.

(News: City & Metropolitan Area, Granada, Andalucia)