Police build copper bottomed case
AN ‘ ARDUOUS’ police investigation has led to the arrest of suspected thieves who targeted isolated country properties across the Marina Alta to steal valuable copper drainpipes.
Detectives linked a spate of similar robberies from homes, farms and outbuildings across the area and were able to locate the couple alleged to be behind the ‘ upturn’ in crime.
The man and his 30- year- old female accomplice were charged with 13 counts of theft of pipes which were ripped off the sides of houses and were sold for more than € 5,000 at scrapyards in El Vergel and Benissa.
However, the raids in September across Tormos, Sanet y Negrals, Rafol d’Alumnia, Alcalali, Campell and Fleix – all communities in the same area – did spread ‘ alarm’.
Guardia Civil officers tracked down the couple after noticing a similar modus operandi in the crimes, convincing them the thefts of metal piping were linked.
Detectives from the ROCA team based in Calpe, which specialises in rural crime, put together a jigsaw of clues and were even able to identify and recover stolen copper from junkyards.
A spokesman said the thieves would ‘ sneak’ onto property under cover of darkness and ‘ pull off the copper pipes installed for the drainage of rainwater that ran down the facade of the building’.
“Once the pipes had been torn out, they were cut into pieces that would allow them to be transported in a small car used by the thieves,” he noted.
“Later, the stolen material was sold in junkyards in the towns of El Vergel and Benissa.”
A ‘ laborious’ study of flattened
copper pieces found at scrapyards allowed officers to identify the villains involved.
The male suspect was remanded in custody, his female accomplice allowed bail to await trial.
The spokesman thanked the public for the ‘ trust’ it placed in the Guardia Civil and explained the ROCA teams were specifically created to combat crime in areas outside urban centres and help ‘ guarantee the safety of people who reside there’.