On the 7th of March, Antonio, a retired man living in Las Gabias, was out walking his dog when he was attacked by a neighbour with a pepper spray.

The culprit is a resident who has been terrorising his neighbours with such antics as slashing their tyres in the block-community garage. In fact, he has been reported no fewer than 40 times

The apartment block has 30 inhabitants who quite often daren’t venture out because he has been seen walking around with a large knife in common areas of the block. He also spread oil on the floors so that people will slip up and hurt themselves. Furthermore, he leaves threatening letters in their post boxes on which he has written “RIP.”

They have concluded that he has mental issues – you can say that again!

So worried are his neighbours that they have collectively spent 2,000 euros on security equipment providing live video surveillance but in the meantime they are waiting for one of their denuncias to actually reach a judge so something can be done about him.

Their prayers were finally answered when the Guardia Civil turned up the week before Easter to arrest  him. He first tried to hide in his apartment and stop them from entering by barricading himself in, threatening to blow everybody up with a rigged butane bottle.

After eight hours of negotiations and the inhabitants of the block evacuated, the police lost patience and went in and got him.

(News/Noticias: Las Gabias, Vega, Granada, Andalucia)