I WAS sat on the balcony reading the daily UK papers when Angela came home in a somewhat distressed state. "Are you OK?" I asked (although I knew she wasn't). "No I have just had my purse stolen on the Market" was her dischuffed response.
She had been to pay our rent at the CAM bank, fortunately she paid that first, otherwise we would have lost a considerable amount of money.
In her purse was 25 euros in cash, a Euromillions ticket for the draw that night and sundry cards (none were credit or debit cards) a copy of her passport, loyalty store cards, and a couple of small personal things of small value.
She had gone on to the market to get a cooked chicken, they roast the chickens on the market and infuse them with various spices, they are excellent for lunch with salad and crusty bread. As she walked through the crowd she bumped into May, who is one of the proprietors of the fish and chip shop in the bay, and they were catching up on the bay gossip. Ange was aware that someone was close by and not particularly shopping and noticed she was wearing a bright pink top but dismissed it as the Spainish can be 'In your face' at times. When she said goodbye to May, she decided to get her purse and the money ready to buy the chicken. That's when she discovered the theft.
After she had related the story to me, she said she had to go and get some more money and that she still hadn't got the chicken. I decided (a macho thing) that I would go with her, and insisted on holding her bank card just in case. She drew some money and we went to buy another lottery ticket (6 Euros), and on the way back bumped into Denise and Margaret. Ange told them what happened, and Denise said "We have just seen the Police down there and they seem to have arrested two women for something, it may be them". Ange was off, in the general direction of the Policemen. I intended to follow but continued the chat with the girls when I saw Ange frantically waving at me from next to the Farmacia (Chemist). I made my excuses and went to meet her.
"See that one in the pink top I am sure she stole my purse" She was pointing at one of two ladies that the police were detaining. One of the Policemen was rifling through their bags pulling various suspicious items out, none of which belonged to Ange. Then a lady came across the road, asked us if we were English and said she had nearly been robbed but scared them off and she too thought it was the one in pink. Following this lady's departure a Belgian man approached: "my wife was robbed of 500 euros by these same people a while ago, they even took our passports, they work in threes so one of them has got away." he told us. Eventually the Policeman came across to confirm what was lost, and said he had not found those items. However he asked us to give a statement to the Guardia Civil up in Finestrat village. We still didn't have our chicken and the market closes at 2 pm, and I was due to take Dave and Pete to the airport in less than an hour, so I asked if I could go later, the policeman insisted we go now. I rang Dave to see if he was ready to go a little earler. "Sorry Bob I a not shaved yet and we have to make our sandwiches for the flight, (makes a change from the boiled eggs he does) so I will be around 20 minutes." I couldn't press them it wasn't their problem so I thought I would take Ange to the cop shop leave her, go take Dave and Pete and come back to pick her up.
So I did exactly that. I dropped her at the Guardia Civil office in Finestrat. I could see through the door and the two accused were sat in the waiting area, and Ange had to walk past them, but I thought in Ange's state of anger if they started anything they would be in serious trouble and decided to leave her. After I managed to navigate the extremely slender streets of Finestrat, I rang her for a status report, "I have to come back in an hour, so I will go to Molly dos for a coffee." (We don't go to Al Fresco anymore, but that is another story which I will take great delight in explaining at some later date) I said I would ring at the airport and get a further update. I then collected dave and Pete and took them to Alicante airport.
I rang from the airport and Ange was clear of the Guardia Civil office so I arranged o meet her near Molly dos. I couldn't park in the village so had to ask her to abandon a fresh cup of coffee so I could just drive off.
She explained what happened. A statement in Spain is usually called a denuncia (in English the best interpretation is a denouncement) The Guardia Civil interviewer spoke no English, Ange has a fair amount of Spanish but she decided she would take someone along to interpret, it was a lady from molly Dos. So Ange duly told the story and the interpreter interpreted. The only English conversation was about th UK when Ange had asked the Guard if he had been to England and it turns out he had been to the Lake District. No wonder the Spanish are convinced that constantly rains in England. "Anyway..." Ange said, "...the upshot is we are in court in Benidorm next Wednesday at 0925 in the morning." The two women had been arrested and remanded in custody.
We still had no chicken! And the market had now closed, so we went to Carrefour, bought an uncooked chicken, and a bottle of whiskey to refill my drinks cabinet, and we went and had an all day breakfast at the chippy.
As we walked past the market as the stall holder were clearing up their stalls, we went to see if the purse had been discarded. No such luck. So we went home 25 euros down from the theft of the purse, 6 euros down for buying a new lottery ticket (incidentally we only got two numbers correct in the draw) and 15 euros down for the interpreter I will dismiss the 12 euros for lunch as it was pure gluttony and we could have eaten at home. We will have to buy a new purse and re-copy ange's passport so she can use it as an identity card for using her debit card. So all-in-all it was an expensive Friday. The moral of the story is to ensure you zip up your hand bag/wallet, make sure you can see your bag at all times and most of all from our perspective, don't consider buying any more cooked chickens from the market our last attempt cost us 46 euros and still no chicken........
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