Last year, the heads of the Barcelona police region of the Mossos d'Esquadra created Titani, a group dedicated exclusively to combating luxury watch thieves who violently broke into Barcelona. The group was dismantled in October and has been operating again since May 11, this time with the desire to remain, integrated into the new structure of the Barcelona police region provided for in the latest police organization decree.
The figures with which this group of investigators works are quite similar to those of last year, although the summer has only just begun and a general rebound is already being noticed in the rest of the criminal activity, equaling and even surpassing some data from 2019. In the last ten weeks, since last May 11, the Titani police have worked from 200 reports of violent thefts of luxury watches. That means that the average number of assaults has been twenty a week.
These figures only include the watches denounced and those certified by the group. That is to say, there were other watch thefts, whose perpetrators were arrested red-handed and whose report was drawn up by Uria, the unit dedicated to drafting the reports that accompany many of the detainees in Barcelona to court.
Some twenty watch thefts a week describe a situation similar to what is happening in other cities with a high-income visitor such as Madrid, Malaga or, outside Spanish borders, Paris or Monte Carlo, with the same problem.
Sergeant Ramon Torner has been put back in charge of Titani. His team is made up of 14 mossos, with three corporals and ten agents.
The group works hand in hand with the fura (plainclothes police) of the region and the fura of the districts, especially Ciutat Vella and Eixample, scenarios where this type of thieves operate the most.
“We are a very specialized group that works in a single modality, the violent robbery of watches considered luxury. This allows us to dedicate time to each of the reports to obtain the maximum burden of proof that helps the judges and prosecutors in their decision”, explains Sergeant Torner.
It is not an easy way to work. The stolen pieces range from 3,000 to 500,000 euros, which is the highest value of a stolen watch this year in Barcelona. It was precisely taken two weeks ago from a citizen of Ukraine and, thanks to the collaboration with the National Police, the perpetrators of the assault were arrested within a few hours and the piece was recovered. “When we phoned the victim, he couldn't believe that we were making an appointment with him at the police station to return his watch. He thought we were kidding him, ”explains inspector Lisardo Hidalgo, one of the heads of the Barcelona criminal investigation area.
It is difficult to classify some of these robberies as violent. Among other things, because the theft is carried out quickly, efficiently, in a few seconds, barely touching the victim, except in rare cases, when the security lock on the watch does not give way and the thief uses blunt force to snatch it away.
“Most of the time, the injury is no more than redness, a small scratch on the forearm, on the wrist. The victim is overwhelmed, angry, and at that moment the last thing he wants is to go to the hospital to receive an injury report. That is why it is difficult to document this violence and the damage”, explains the sergeant.
And for this reason, adds the inspector, the investigators follow the guideline agreed with the Prosecutor's Office to photograph, to document the injury, the arm, and also the entire body of the victim so that there is no doubt that it was that person who suffered the damage. All this with a device that references the day and time the image was taken.
The modus operandi of these groups of watchmakers has not changed much either, except on a couple of occasions in which the authors used electric defenses and on another occasion a spray. It is, the inspector assures, a violent reaction to ensure escape and hinder any pursuit.
On July 14 at half past four in the afternoon, on Aragó street, in front of number 406, a man received an electric shock in the leg while a DeWitt valued at 32,000 euros was torn from his wrist.
There are three main types of watch thieves. The majority is made up of opportunists, repeat thieves who go out looking for the first thing they see, who act in groups of between two and five people and move around on electric scooters. They steal from a phone to a wallet, a bag or a watch if they suspect it is good. They are the ones who use the crudest methods and do not hesitate to resort to violence if the robbery becomes complicated.
A dozen of the 75 arrested in the last two months were already arrested last year for violently stealing a watch. They are known by the investigators and they do not go unnoticed by the fura of Ciutat Vella and Eixample, who as soon as they detect them, stealthily stick to them until they are caught red-handed. This is what happened last Thursday, when the citizen security groups of the two districts arrested seven watch thieves in separate persecutions.
Hence the importance of the Fura and the Titani group working in coordination, sharing information.
Titani members conduct basic research based on the complaint. "We are very concerned about documenting the robbery with images of the alleged perpetrators that allow us to identify the suspects with certainty and that reinforce the possible positive line-up carried out by the victim," they explain.
25% of those arrested for stealing luxury watches end up in provisional prison. The figure is conditioned by the difficulty of documenting this violence and because the victims are usually foreign visitors who leave and, even after having arrested the alleged perpetrator of the theft of his watch, it is not easy for them to agree to participate in a preconstituted evidence, that statement that will serve for the day the trial is held in their absence.
The second group of thieves would be made up of a more professional, more organized group, which also includes several people who move around on electric scooters and who operate throughout the Spanish territory.
The third group is directly linked to international organized crime and travels through Europe looking for the most coveted pieces. The latter hardly mistake a good watch for a fake.
None of the three groups, assures inspector Hidalgo, arrives in Barcelona with a set objective: "We have watched suspects who have spent ten hours walking around until they have seen the watch they like and know how to wait for the best moment to start it."
