Police are on the trail of what appears to be a lone house-breaker targeting empty homes in suburban areas of Albufeira.
The man has already made off with thousands of euros worth of domestic appliances and IT equipment and is thought to have robbed at least five houses in the last month.
“He strikes during the day in the absence of homeowners,” a source for the GNR told Correio da Manhã newspaper. “There is only one occasion where the owners were home, but they didn’t see him. He does not attack his victims,” the spokesman stressed.
In the case of a Ferreiras villa owner, the thief “scaled the garden railings and forced open the door to the living room with a crowbar, or something similar”. He then went through the house “taking everything that interested him”.
Talking to CM, villa owner Ana Marçal said a neighbour had seen a man with a hoe sitting under a tree watching the house some days before. “I now no longer feel safe at home,” she told the paper.
Other incidents have been reported in the areas of Malhada Velha and Fontainhas.
