Spanish Police Nab Daredevil Thieves
May 23, 2009 by national
Filed under Incident Reports
They were daredevil highwaymen whose meticulously planned motorway heists combined precision driving with death-defying acrobatics.
On Friday Spanish police made a series of arrests in and around Madrid detaining 23 members of a gang who they say specialized in robbing moving trucks without the drivers noticing.
The Civil Guard believe the the gang crisscrossed the country and pulled off more than 50 thefts from trucks in a two-year crime spree that brought them millions of dollars.
With little apparent thought for their safety the thieves often targeted trucks at night on quiet stretches of motorway.
The gang used a car to overtake and then pull in front of a lorry, forcing it to slow down. Other gang members in following pick-up trucks would then draw up behind the truck. A daring robber would walk down the bonnet of the pick-up and leap from it and on to the back of the moving truck.
Using a rope or a suction cup device to hang on, the thief then used either a battery-powered grinder or a crowbar to pry open the truck’s rear doors.
Other members of the gang clambered across the bonnet of the pick-up truck and jumped into the back of the big rig.
They then passed back the loot, which was often computers, mobile phones, brand-name clothes, sunglasses or perfumes.
