The crackdown on beach hoggers commenced nearly two decades ago in La Herradura, then under Juan Carlos Benavides – today it continues in Torrox.

Nobody has anything against somebody who turns up to plant their deckchair, beach brollie & towels as close as he or she can get to the surf… as long as they intend to use them there and then.

However, there has always been a problem with those that pay somebody else to stake their claim as the sun lifts over the horizon, whilst they remain snoring in bed and not liable to sit on the beach until after breakfast later in the morning.

The people who actually get up early to plant the beach kit on the sand are bribed block janitors and sometimes the non-profit, elderly grandparent who is wide awake at that time anyway.

And so it is that the Torrox-Costa Town Hall has gone to war on the selfish surf squatters and it’s not the first time, as they started doing this in 2014; the first town in the province of Málaga to do this.

This August during last weekend, the Policía Local scooped up 40 sets of beach equipment (around 200 items) to hold them hostage until their owners came to retrieve them, pending the payment of a 300-euro fine.

Many scoundrels have got wise to this and buy the cheapest folding chairs and sun brollies available, usually at the nearest oriental bazaar, worth much less than 300 euros, whilst their cosher kit doesn’t appear until they do, later on.

If their ‘place holders’ are still there when they arrive, they are replaced by the real McCoy. If they are not… well, it’s not a great loss and they certainly won’t be trooping down to pay the fine for its recovery.

Finally, there is always the collateral damage in the form of the ‘honest’ early risers who had just nipped off to use the beach toilets when the Snatchers in Blue made their sweep. There are also those who were not gracing their spread towels because they were out 100 meters away blowing bubbles and making friends with the fish.

For this reason, the police are open to hearing them out and even giving back their beach equipement free of charge.

(News: Torrox Costa, Axarquia, Costa del Sol, Malaga, Andalucia)

Reader’s comment: “Gosh!!! The lengths that some people will go to.” – Melanie Briggs Kidd