One two three four…. Up to 68 interminable and anguishing seconds, the manager of a Zaragoza betting establishment that was robbed at the end of February remained at gunpoint. The author then managed to flee with loot of just over 2,200 euros.
The events took place on February 28 in a place in the Arrabal neighborhood of the Aragonese capital. At around 1:15 a.m., the suspect approached the worker and put the gun to her head, threatening to pull the trigger if she did not give him all the cash available in the till. After seizing the money, the offender fled on the run and could not be located by the police patrols that went to the scene after receiving notice from the room.
As reported by the newspaper Heraldo de Aragón, the investigators suspected that the only client who was inside the establishment at that time could also be involved in the robbery. Especially since, given the time, the manager had already locked the premises, so the robber took advantage of the moment in which this customer went out to smoke to sneak inside and launch the coup.
The aforementioned client, identified as A.C.R., initially denied knowing the robber, who acted hidden in white painter’s overalls with a hood and his face covered. However, the agents were able to verify that shortly after the robbery was committed, this young man received a message on his mobile phone that said “I’m waiting for you in the car.”
Questioned by the agents, A.C.R. ended up confessing that a cousin to whom he claimed to owe 400 euros forced him to participate in the assault, and that he was responsible for facilitating the thief’s access to the establishment.
After gathering this information, the investigators proceeded to arrest M.A.B.P. as the alleged perpetrator of the armed robbery. According to the Aragonese newspaper, based on the report from the Robbery Group and after his statement in the duty court, the Prosecutor’s Office even requested prison for him.
For its part, the defense told the judge that the victim who had been shot at described the assailant as a young man with a “Maghrebi accent” between 1.75 and 1.80 meters tall.
Finally, the magistrate considered that the perpetrator was not clear and released the suspect. “The person who appears in the recordings does not correspond to the physiognomy of the detainee,” she pointed out in her car.
