A thief accused of committing eight robberies with intimidation in commercial establishments in Barcelona was arrested last Saturday by the Mossos d'Esquadra. The man committed the robberies in the Nou Barris neighborhood using a large knife and fleeing with the loot on an electric scooter.
The Catalan police managed to arrest the 31-year-old man after he tried to rob a butcher shop with the same modus operandi as in the seven previous robberies. The agents had been looking for him since the first robberies he committed days before.
The day he was arrested he tried to rob a butcher shop in Nou Barris, but he failed and fled the scene. However, a citizen security patrol located him on Via Júlia when he was riding his scooter. When the Mossos tried to arrest him, the man hit the agents and tried to flee. Finally, he was arrested on March 16 and was brought to justice last Monday.
The Mossos explain that they began the investigation of this case on March 10 after some robberies with intimidation that all took place in the same neighborhood and with the same procedure. In all cases, the thief entered the business when there was only one worker. Under the pretext that he wanted to buy some product, he got the victim to move away from the checkouts, at which point he threatened the employee with a knife to take the money.
In the robberies that he carried out with the same modus operandi in Nou Barris between March 10 and 15, the detainee made off with around 1,500 euros in total. According to the police, in just two days he committed six robberies and to move from one store to another or escape from it he used an electric scooter.
