A 54-year-old resident of Poblenou has been hospitalized since Tuesday afternoon after receiving a beating when he tried to recover the mobile phone that had just been taken from him by a thief, at the door of the car park of his house. The victim is in critical condition.
The terrible event happened on Tuesday at half past seven in the afternoon, when the man was getting ready to enter the parking lot of the building where he lives. Still inside the vehicle, and with the window open as he waited for the access door to open, an individual on a bicycle rode up to him, put his arm inside the car and snatched him the iPhone 12 that the victim had on his legs.
The man's reaction was instantaneous. With a flick of the steering wheel, he accelerated the old Mercedes and chased the thief. It didn't take long for him to walk the five meters, get out of the car and pounce on the criminal, knocking him down. In fact, the victim's vehicle stayed in gear and crashed into a building.
They didn't even fight. The victim had no time to react. As soon as he got up from the ground, the criminal punched him twice in the face, knocking him down almost instantly. Already on the ground, he kicked him directly in the head. The scene was witnessed by users of the basement of the building, where the victim has lived all his life with his mother.
With the man lying on the ground, the criminal let go of the phone and fled the scene on the same bicycle he had arrived with. A pacified space and for pedestrians among the many that exist in this section of the Sant Martí district. Some witnesses assured that, after the blows, the thief tried to tear the chain from his neck. Several witnesses called 112 and several citizen security patrols from the Sant Martí Police Squad, which have the police station relatively close, approached the scene.
The man was still conscious when the police arrived, and was attended to by neighbors and passers-by. One of them assured La Vanguardia that he saw the man whose face was starting to turn red from the blows. The victim was still able to describe to the police the first moments of the robbery, but immediately began to feel ill and commented that he did not remember what had happened after the kick.
An ambulance from the Medical Emergency Service took the victim to the Hospital del Mar. In the morning, the emergency managers already warned the investigators that the patient's situation had worsened and that he had been transferred to the intensive care critical unit and that his prognosis was not good at all.
The investigation was immediately transferred to the homicide group of the Barcelona Police, which has taken over the case, which is a priority at the moment. The police spent all day yesterday taking statements from witnesses and collecting images from the different security cameras of the surrounding establishments. Among which, the images of the two recording devices installed in the lobby and parking lot of the building where the victim lived with his mother for security reasons.
The man had been retired from work for some time, after having a motorcycle accident that left him with serious consequences. He had worked all his life in the military armaments industry. He has no children and is currently in no romantic relationship. A lover of weapons, he is a regular member of the Sabadell shooting club.
