ARCHIVED - Camposol loses count of the cash machine robberies

As yet another ATM bites the dust residents are left with a look of bewildered resignation

On Wednesday morning (August 17) shop and bars owners opening their premises on Sector A Commercial Centre were greeted with a now all too familiar sight, the mangled remnants of a cash machine and a smashed and damaged shop front. Reports from local business owners indicate that the machine was only filled on Tuesday.

The ATM in question was built into a shop front on the lower level of A Sector commercial centre, it seems that the machine was dragged out of it’s housing and prised open. Iron railings were ripped from their fixing in the process.

This robbery follows hot on the heels of 2 ATM robberies in as many months in the Sector B Commercial Centre which followed a similar modus operandi, after which the vehicle involved in one of the crimes was found abandoned in El Paretón a week or so later. It was less than 18 months ago that another ATM less than 50 metres from last night’s incident was burgled, and around the same time the foyer and front section of the bank on Sector B was demolished by assailants stealing the ATM there.

Although Mazarrón Council welcome 11 new local police recruits in July, they may have their work cut out as figures published today by The Spanish Interior Ministry based on data supplied by Los Cuerpos y Fuerzas de Seguridad del Estado (The State Security Forces) show that Mazarrón has the third highest crime rate in the region per capita, behind San Javier and the city of Murcia.

According to the figures Mazarrón has 25.25 reported crimes per thousand inhabitants, with San Javier with 30.35 and Murcia with 25.44 and Águilas just behind Mazarrón with 25.0. While the Region of Murcia has reported lower levels of crime over the last two years because of the COVID effect these new figures show a 15.9% increase on pre-pandemic 2019 numbers.

There have been suggestions, particularly from UK expats, that CCTV survaillance could be used to track the perpetrators. Unlike in the UK, Spanish privacy laws forbid permenant video surveillance being focused on public roads and ,areas making it difficult to track criminal get away routes.  

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