Last night my pub was robbed, clearly a professional job, minimal damage and mess. They only took unopened bottles of spirits and wines and unopened cases of beers and minerals. Approx loss £1000.
Phoned the police this morning and was given a crime reference number and told to take photograhs and report it to the insurance company. Also informed that no officer would be attending.

Would this be the same in Spain?

No.

Well, I'm not so sure.

Two nights ago, at 11:30pm, we had our gate bell rung. I went down to the gate to find a VERY distressed (Portuguese) lady (about 30) sobbing her heart out.

To cut a long story short, she was from Portugal and she had come here with her husband to see a lawyer about a divorce and to pick up her daughter who she had legal custody of.

Going past our house her and her husband had a row where he had threatened to kill her. Because of this she had jumped out of the moving car - he then drove off without returning - she was cut, bruised and complaining of being beaten up!


I called the local police who were not interested as it was a 'matrimonial problem'! They suggested I went to the national if she was prepared to denounce him. I then drove her into town to the national police where I was told that they were not interested as it was a local matter and that I should go to the local police.

In my best Spanglish, I swore at them about the situation - a young woman had been threatened, she was from Portugal so a long way from home, had all her documents/money/suitcase/phone taken by her husband and they weren't interested


Just what should she have done in that situation? The police even told me that I should not have opened my door to her! I would like to think that if my wife or daughter ever needed help, someone would stop to assist and that the police would help in some way!

I'm sorry but which country did this happen in?

Stuboy that just sounds like a very poor service to me I assume they entered premises to steal the property? which would make it a burglary and should be examined for forensics at least. i am also assuming you are speaking of this being in the UK? If so I would be complaing to your local Police authority

Yes - it is the same in Spain, it's happened to me.

no Spanish experience, but 2 instances in uk was just a statistic, although neither were robbery.

and they wonder why we have no respect for them when they pull us for speeding 5-10mph over the limit.

What did the Chief Constable say when you foned him ??

This is a very recent Spanish example. A local shopping centre suddenly suffered a number of arson attacks on pubs and restaurants, almost on a nightly basis. The premises attacked were Indian, Spanish, Chinese and Colombian. There were all sorts of petitions and money was collected for CCTV cameras.

People wondered at the inactivity of the local police and the Guardia Civil, until they arrested the arsonist responsible. I don't know what took them so long. it was just too obvious. While all the other premises were set on fire nightly, dozens of times, a little Brit bar in the corner, in a really stupid place that never got the sun, remained untouched.

The owner has now been arrested and is in custody.

UK, Chichester

I agree, It is generally considered unwise for a publican to complain about the police. My friend (a fellow publican) did so and he got a surprising amount of police presence for a while in his car park. At one stage they put reflective orange stickers onto the back of customers cars so they could easily identify which cars had left the pub car park.

is that legal ?

and they want our co-operation and support.

funny how things are different if they use your pub themselves, but then they only drink where retired coppers are behind the bar...

Not investigating burglary's orange stickers on the back of cars parked in car parks all sounds bizarre to me

all to do with the Club of Funny Handshakes....

I think in the UK it's a lot to do with police numbers, the first time my UK house was burgled, I had detectives, SoC, taking details, dusting for fingerprints, the whole enchilada. The second time, some 8 months later, I just had a single PC visit, took details, gave me a crime number, the next two tmes no-onr visited, just got given crime numer over the phone. Police numbers were under pressure at that time, and they were being told to concentrate on more important crimes.

Remnant of the Islamic invasion 711 AD:- Women are worthless