Car break-ins and thefts Málaga - Strait of Gibraltar area (1 Viewer)

If you are birding or taking photos in the Málaga - Strait of Gibraltar area, LOOK OUT!

Parked in a service station an hour west of Málaga yesterday along the toll road and with the group never more than 40m from the vehicle, we were broken into and all hand luggage stolen. Goodbye scope, camera, laptop and passport.

I've just found out that others have suffered thefts from cars in Tarifa, La Barca de Vejer and Barbate, amongst others. It seems they are targeting birders and photographers, so take extreme precautions!

If you go you'll love it, but hope you have better luck than we did.

John

Hi,
that's an old problem of that area. A bit more than 20 years ago, me and a few friends went from Lisbon in a car to the Gibraltar area and spent the night in the car, parked at Tarifa beach. Came early morning and we all went for a stroll on the beach. I took only binoculars with me, leaving the scope in the car. A few of my friends did the same. The area was apparently deserted, we saw or heard no one at all anywhere. A few fine Audouin's Gulls later we were back to the car, just half an hour maybe? It was horrifying to see one lateral window had been broken and all our scopes, tripods, cameras and (personally) money were gone. Complete shock as we were aiming for a few days enjoying the raptor migration wonders.
We went straight after to the Tarifa police HQ and filed in a complaint (not sure these are the adequate terms) against uncertain people. They seemed interested but we realized they wouldn't do anything, they weren't going to investigate anything. It adds colour to the description to say they had a typing machine there that 20 years ago was already a museum item, with several missing keys.
Still in shock we decided we'd go back to the crime scene and we'd investigate it ourselves. We were aiming to search for any possible clues, footprints, or even to find suspicious people around there trying to make further victims. Back at the spot I had an idea: to try and think as the robbers: where would I hide a large number of items effectively. There's a stream flowing to the beach which is bordered by dense vegetation, in particular dense rushes. I walked in zigzag going upstream on the right bank of the stream and suddenly, perhaps 1 km upstream (or less), bingo! A small clearing among the rushes full with all our stuff and more... there were documents from many more victims, even car keys. It was hard to believe at the time we had beaten the robbers, just seemed too good to be true (after something that seemed too bad to be real). But of course, my money didn't show up (it would be the equivalent to about 100 euros I think, still before euro). We collected everything and went to Tarifa again to inform the police and to leave with them all item that weren't ours. It felt to us like victory indeed and the police officers just couldn't believe, they seemed baffled. From there we went to a car shop, got our car window fixed and set off to the Gibraltar rock to search for Barbary Partridge (which we found). Raptor migration was disappointing unfortunately, but I got my lifer White-headed Ducks later at Laguna de Medina, so not all was terrible.
So, as you see, this problem goes back at least 20 years. I wonder if they still use the same hiding place... of if the local police has ever investigated anything there now they must have computers instead of that fantastic typing machine...

Sorry to hear that John. Brings back unhappy memories of my car being broken into at Guadalhorce about 10 years ago. If I go there again, I always take everything with me and leave the car with clear views of the seats and boot so they can see there's nothing inside.

Hi John

Any further luck in getting the possession back at all? I was sad to hear of this happening to you John after my OH and I
had such a fabulous trip to Spain with you in the previous group visit.

On our sailing/birding trips over the years to Menorca, Spain we are warned about of the continual thefts into the chalets because they have increased a lot. Touch wood we have not been hit. Each year we go, we are told never to keep the chalet unlocked for any reason, and we keep our optics well out of sight too. We have a safe in the room that is used for passports, money and a couple of favourite hiding places for optics if need be.

OH and I made a point of any hire car we have hired on our trips to Menorca over the years (and other places we have visited) to make sure that the hire company does not have it's company logo all over the cars body. Stops us from looking the tourists that we are and made us more vulnerable
to thieves

Jon Turner said:

Sorry to hear that John. Brings back unhappy memories of my car being broken into at Guadalhorce about 10 years ago. If I go there again, I always take everything with me and leave the car with clear views of the seats and boot so they can see there's nothing inside.

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Thanks! It still hurts as it was quite a financial hit, but I did get a little back from the extended vehicle insurance I had taken out. The group actually got quite a lot of their gear (obviously no money, cameras, optics or laptops) back almost 2 weeks later when a sub-contracted geologist doing some work on the areas bridges came across most of the gear thrown out down a roadside bank. He reported it to the Civil Guard and Police, neither of whom reacted, and when he returned a few days later to recheck something, picked it all up, got in touch via the contact details on the tour checklist and sent it all via a courier! My rucksack with its contents unfortunately was one of two which never reappeared, including my passport which cost me quite a bit to get redone and sent in time for another tour shortly afterwards :-(

Cheers,

John

Peewit said:

Hi John

Any further luck in getting the possession back at all? I was sad to hear of this happening to you John after my OH and I
had such a fabulous trip to Spain with you in the previous group visit.

On our sailing/birding trips over the years to Menorca, Spain we are warned about of the continual thefts into the chalets because they have increased a lot. Touch wood we have not been hit. Each year we go, we are told never to keep the chalet unlocked for any reason, and we keep our optics well out of sight too. We have a safe in the room that is used for passports, money and a couple of favourite hiding places for optics if need be.

OH and I made a point of any hire car we have hired on our trips to Menorca over the years (and other places we have visited) to make sure that the hire company does not have it's company logo all over the cars body. Stops us from looking the tourists that we are and made us more vulnerable
to thieves

Click to expand...

Please see above. It's really hard to keep a vehicle truly empty while birding so there's always the risk.

I was recently warned by two Civil Guard I bumped into in a bar in Monfragüe at the end of the year never to leave gear in the cars in car parks there either.

Cheers,

John

We got our car robbed on a hidden parking spot in Sierra de las Nieves above Malaga, while we were out for a full-day hike. They simply bent one door out and thusly entered, stole our sleeping bags and other stuff. The rental company was luckily very cooperative, despite it being December 31, they offered an immediate replacement of the car at Malaga airport, the only open branch at that time and all the damage to the car was covered. Funnily they told us that if the thieves had simply broken the window with a stone (which seems much easier to me), we would have to pay as glass is not covered - so this was quite considerate of the thieves!

The worst consequence was that we had to spend the remaining nights of the trip in hotels. Brrrrr.