Civil Guard arrests man over 16 break-ins at rural cottages near Sagunto
Sixteen break-ins at rural cottages and second homes in the La Baronía area have ended with a 29-year-old man arrested and a 31-year-old under investigation, the Civil Guard has confirmed.
It all started when a restaurant owner in Gilet reported that his entire gas system, copper pipes included, had been stripped out. That complaint put officers on the trail of similar break-ins spread across Estivella and Albalat dels Tarongers, two villages that, together with Algar de Palancia, Alfara, Algimia, Petrés, Segart and Torres Torres, make up La Baronía, an association of nine towns covering 108 square kilometres and home to around 5,369 people, where it is easy to move around unnoticed between neighbouring areas. The pattern was always the same: homes used only occasionally, shut up for most of the year, from which cabling, copper and aluminium disappeared, along with appliances and the odd piece of jewellery. That material was later turned into quick cash at scrap-metal yards, second-hand shops and gold-buying stores. The case was solved by the ROCA Team, the Civil Guard's Sagunto unit that specialises in exactly this kind of rural crime; the file has now been passed to the Sagunto court. Source: El Periódico de Aquí.