Tourist is robbed of £430,000 Richard Mille watch in Barcelona’s most expensive street by e-scooter muggers
- The thieves used an electric scooter to flee scene after grabbing the timepiece
Police are hunting muggers who stole a tourist’s £430,000 Richard Mille watch in Barcelona’s most expensive street.
The thieves used an electric scooter to flee the scene after ripping the designer timepiece off their victim’s wrist.
The shocking crime happened in the Catalan capital’s Paseo de Gracia, one of the city’s major avenues and most important shopping and business areas.
It is regarded as the most expensive street in Barcelona and in Spain and home to boutiques belonging to national and international fashion houses like Loewe and Chanel as well are Zara and Mango.
Police sources said the one of the muggers snatched the watch and passed it on to the accomplice on an electric scooter.
The victim’s nationality has not been revealed.
Police are hunting muggers who stole a tourist’s £430,000 Richard Mille watch in Barcelona’s most expensive street
A spokesman for the regional Catalan police Mossos d’Esquadra confirmed today: ‘The investigation is ongoing. No arrests have yet been made.’
Barcelona’s security has been under the spotlight in recent years and it has become known as one of the most favourite destinations of professional watch thieves from places like Naples.
In March a 25-year-old Canadian tourist died after plunging from a bridge in Barcelona last month in an incident believed to be linked to an attempted mugging.
The holidaymaker lost his fight for life after being rushed to hospital with serious head injuries.
Initial local reports at the time claimed police believed his attackers may have thrown him from the bridge during a struggle after he resisted their attempts to rob him.
But it subsequently emerged he may have jumped to his death in the mistaken belief he could reach safety after a fatal miscalculation about the near-20 feet drop.
Tennis star Grigor Dimitrov became a victim of the gangs of designer watch muggers targeting the city in April.
The 31-year-old Bulgarian had the £62,000 timepiece ripped off his wrist in his car as he returned from training ahead of the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell tournament.
The timepiece was described as a a Swiss Bianchet watch valued at 70,000 euros (£62,560).
The shocking crime happened in the Catalan capital’s Paseo de Gracia, one of the city’s major avenues and most important shopping and business areas
In June last year Formula 1 driver Sebastian Vettel had a backpack stolen in the city.
He tried to chase down the thieves by hopping on an electric scooter after a bag was grabbed from his Aston Martin as he got out for a brief moment.
In August last year Barcelona footballer Robert Lewandowski had his £59,000 watch stolen from him as he signed autographs before an evening training session at his club’s Ciutat Esportiva complex.
The striker sprinted after the culprit, who was eventually caught by police who returned the watch to the sportsman.
A month later a UK tourist was stabbed in the city, where rugby player and reality TV star Levi Davis went missing in circumstances which are still under investigation, while trying to fight off thieves who had snatched his bag.
This summer tourists and locals were warned to be on their guard against a gang of revolting thieves who spit on their victims and then distract them by offering to clean up the vomit.
Detectives published footage of the bag snatchers at work, showing the ruse involving two men with baseball caps on working together to target a blonde woman and a young traveller.
Both incidents occurred on Barcelona’s metro system.
In July last year a specialist police group was created in Barcelona to tackle the problem of violent watch thefts.
The previous month an American businessman had his watch grabbed off his wrist as he returned to his five-star hotel in Barcelona from a family lunch.
The incident happened in broad-daylight. Initial reports pointed to the Swiss-made Hublot watch being worth a staggering £687,000 before police said they had been told by Hublot it was a limited-edition timepiece worth £37,000.
Source: Read Full Article