Theft from car at Santomera services

[frankie4748]

We stopped at Santomera services a few years ago, on our way from the UK to our villa in Oria. We had our two German Shepherd dogs in the back of our 4x4, and two friends in the back seat. We did not leave the vicinity of the car, just stood next to it drinking coffee from a flask. The boot was open, allowing any potential thieves to see our huge dogs sitting in the back.

When we were all ready to get back in, my friend chucked her shoulderbag on the back seat as my partner slammed the boot lid, prior to getting in the driver's seat. In a flash, a black BMW with dark-tinted windows screeched to a halt alongside our 4x4, on the opposite side to where 2 of us were literally hands-on-door-handles, a man dived from the back seat of the BMW, yanked the back door of our 4x4 open, grabbed my friend's bag, dove back in to the open BMW door, whereupon the revving driver floored the accelerator, and they were gone. ALL THIS HAPPENED IN LESS THAN 5 SECONDS. There wasn't time for any of us to react. Within 10 seconds, an unmarked police car screeched up, informed us that a regular gang of thieves were operating in the area,told us to go immediately to the Guardia Civil station in nearby Santomera to report it, and look at photos of known thieves to see if we could identify them. All the time, he was talking on his police radio to the station , giving them the registration number of the BMW etc. Apparently, the GC had been parked up there regularly, under cover, trying to catch the thieves in action. He gave us quite a lot of information about the gang, of which there were 7 gang members, one of them a woman, but their modus operandii included stealing a suitable getaway car (usually black with dark windows,), before parking on the services without getting out, but keeping the engine ticking over, just waiting for a vulnerable vehicle to pull up, occupants to get out, without locking the doors, without actually leaving the vehicle's side. Even the presence of our 2 GSD's did not deter them. I think what shocked us more than the actual theft, was the sheer speed of it, very professionally carried out.  The police were wonderful to us, taking detailed statements and doing their best to help us to try and I. D. the thieves, but the proximity to Murcia, and in a very fast car, the police said it would be almost impossible to locate the thieves before the stolen car would be found - burnt out -with little or no evidence of their identity.


BE AWARE OUT THERE, ESPECIALLY AT THAT PARTICULAR SERVICE STATION.

Regards, FrankieD and PeteS

[nibbler]

I'm not sure they're opportunists. They normally hang around looking for either unsuspecting Brits or other vulnerable people.
Nibbler

[mickandjan]

Sorry to hear of your break in.  Only normally stop there going the other way and usually drink the coffee outside.  Moreover, the last two times we stopped there we parked next to Trafico cars (they tend to stop there for their coffees too) and unsurprisingly had no issues!

A friend of ours had her handbag stolen as she sat outside this one recently. Horrible opportunist thieves! Causes such distress...passports, money, phone etc!

[raysun]

Be careful inside as well. The women used to sneak in and lift what they could. Think they keep them out now hopefully.

[Elgin]

Sorry to hear of your break in.  Only normally stop there going the other way and usually drink the coffee outside.  Moreover, the last two times we stopped there we parked next to Trafico cars (they tend to stop there for their coffees too) and unsurprisingly had no issues!

[JUD]

Thanks JT for the info , we often use this stop on our way and ,like you, we normally sit by the window but  a few times have sat at the counter, we will be  more careful in future.
judd.

[tandas]

When you say back of the car do you mean back seat?  We never leave anything on show when parking anywhere.  Having said that we had our car stolen in the UK whilst at the cinema watching a film about car thieves!  Since then we've also always used a crook lock on the steering wheel, as the policeman said back then  they would probably not have taken our car if we'd had one in use as it made it more difficult to do quickly.  never saw the car again.

[Benjamin Franklin]

Seems there is a resurgence of this type of crime.
The police Facebook site (N332) issued some warnings today.
Keep alert folks.

[doreen1]

How awful for you. Thanks for the reminder that we need to take care when travelling.

[JT]

We were driving along the A7 towards Murcia last Thursday on our way to Albox and stopped for a final cup of coffee at the Cafestore at Santomera services. We were only there for about 20 minutes and for the first time we did not sit next to a window. When we returned to our car we found the rear passenger window had been smashed in and articles stolen from the back of the car. We called out the Guardia who examined Cafestore's CCTV system. That showed the window being smashed by two men whom the Guardia described as grey looking, probably Romanian or Bulgarian. The CCTV did not get a full shot of the incident and only showed a part of the vehicle that was being attacked.