Remember the story about the thieves who broke into a warehouse and when they were confronted by the police a 13 year-old boy was killed? Well this one is just going to run and run… literally.
OK, let's summarise: We have two criminals, caught red-handed on Monday evening in the act of stealing from a warehouse by the police, In the altercation that follows, a 13 year-old boy, the son of one of the men that they took along with them, is killed. They went to court in Loures yesterday (which coincidentally, recently lost its ATM from the courthouse lobby in a robbery) and are freed on bail. All they have to do is report on a weekly basis to the police until their trial.
Now it turns out that the father of the boy, Paulo Salazar, presented a false ID and address to the police when they were caught, and that in February 2007 he had previously escaped from prison, which the judge wasn't aware of when they were released. As they were driven away from the courthouse by a relative, in a very expensive looking Mercedes, Portuguese TV were reporting that the father was a fugitive. That was the last anyone has seen of him, and the police are now on the hunt. The father, Sandro Salazar, was in prison for his part in an armed robbery in the Algarve.
In the meantime, the family of the boy who was killed has accused the police of racism - they were ciganos (gypsies) and of having a ‘shoot to kill’ policy. The fact that they were ciganos has left the family with little sympathy in Portugal. While there is sadness that a 13 year-old was killed, many people have condemned the family for taking the boy along on a criminal act in the first place. One cruel comment in the daily newspaper Correio da Manhã was that it was one less cigano that will commit crimes in the future.
In the meantime, while the Portuguese news were reporting the latest developments in this case, there was another bank robbery in Loures. A Millennium BCP bank was the target this time. The robbers burst into the bank and robbed the staff and customers of their possessions. Of the four robbers, three were caught, with a total of around 3.000€ on them. One unlucky customer was in the process of depositing a cheque for 2.000€, which is presently being held by the police. The fourth robber escaped in a Honda Civic, and is presently being hunted.
This sudden surge in robberies seems to be a part of the increasing effects of the crisis presently affecting the country. Earlier in the year, a business owner attempted to rob a bank to pay his debts, the number of carjackings increased 55% in the first six months of 2008, and robberies of ATM's were reported once every other day (this is robberies OF cash machines, not FROM cash machines.)
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