Thieves who stole from tourists' vehicles ordered to stay away from Costa del Sol and Malaga province

National Police officers have arrested two foreign individuals, 29 and 32, accused of stealing items from inside vehicles by using signal jammers. The judicial authority has released the alleged offenders, although, as a precautionary measure, a restraining order has been imposed on them to prevent them from approaching any location within the province of Malaga.

This was revealed by sources at the provincial police headquarters, who specified that the suspects mainly acted in car parks in the city centre, where they allegedly committed six robberies. Their modus operandi consisted of using the remote controls to prevent the central locking system of the victims' cars from being activated.

The investigation, initiated by the officers of the central district police station following an increase in the number of complaints, revealed the offenders had a very specific objective. They were targeting foreign tourists who left their vehicles, all rented, inside car parks. The victims, who left believing that the vehicles had been locked, realised when they returned to the cars that their belongings had been stolen. In most cases, the thieves fled with their luggage and equipment such as tablets, computers, laptops or mobile phones.

The targets, who were being watched by the suspects, worked out that they had either just arrived in the city or that they had to return to their countries of origin that same day, which is why they were carrying all their belongings in their cars, according to the investigation.

The police set up a special surveillance and tracking operation to identify and arrest the perpetrators. They located the vehicle used to carry out the thefts and found the suspects crouched inside it in a central parking lot. The car was properly parked, with the lights and engine turned off, in order to go unnoticed by other users of the parking facility.

The officers observed the way in which the two men acted; when a person - mostly tourists - was about to lock their car, they carefully took out the controls with which they blocked the central locking signal of the car in question.

In view of this, the officers proceeded to identify and arrest them. Similarly, contact was made with the complainants, many of whom were from outside Spain, who recognised objects belonging to them among the possessions of those arrested. Through the security cameras, it was observed how the perpetrators of the thefts moved the stolen goods from one floor to another, and then put them in their own vehicle.

This pattern was repeated in various central parking areas around the city, and with their arrest, several previously reported thefts have now been resolved.