A mattress, a sled and a meager haul: two Núria workers arrested for the theft of the safe

BarcelonaFirst arrests for the mysterious robbery in the Núria ValleyThe Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) have arrested two men, aged 38 and 52, as the alleged perpetrators of the robbery on February 9th at the ski resort hotel. Three masked men stole the safe and attempted to transport it on a sled along the rack railway tracks, the only one in the area. Specifically, the police accuse them of committing five burglaries and are still searching for two other individuals: the third masked man and a suspected accomplice. The arrest of the first two suspects took place this Wednesday in Queralbs, in the Ripollès region, the last town before reaching the Núria Valley, where the ski resort is located. The robberies occurred in the early hours of the morning in five rooms of the hotel complex. First, the thieves gained access to the reception area and an administration office by forcing the lock on the door. At that moment, they came into contact with the safe, which weighed over 100 kilos. They placed a baby mattress under the safe and managed to drag it to the emergency exit. Once outside, they left the mattress and placed the safe on a snow sled. This was the means of transport they used to reach the rack railway tracks, at night and with the entire landscape covered in snow.

In fact, they managed to travel along the railway tracks for 500 meters, and ended up throwing the sled and the safe off the tracks, leaving it open. One question lingered in the police investigation: whether the safe had opened due to the impact of the fall or if the thieves had managed to open it themselves. Finally, the police concluded that it had been forced open with an angle grinder and a pickaxe. However, inside they found a meager haul: 150 euros in cash.

No luck

Inside the hotel, the thieves forced other doors, stealing items such as a jacket. They also reached the hotel's cash registers, but found no money. They tried again with the cash registers in one of the hotel's cafes, but these too were empty. One of the other thefts occurred in the area dedicated to organizing recreational activities for children and their families. The perpetrators forced open a door and, once inside, took a large sled and a jacket. The final, fifth theft took place in the snow sled rental shop. There, the thieves managed to steal 200 euros from a cash register and approximately 1,000 euros in cash from an envelope. In total, the loot amounted to less than 1,500 euros. The investigation has determined that up to four people were involved in the robberies. They were intimately familiar with the premises, following a logical and calculated route from the first room to the last, their primary target being the safe. The detainees, one of whom has a criminal record, will appear before the duty judge in Ripoll this Thursday.