
Man has '$60,000 watch stolen from his wrist' while sitting in $350,000 Lamborghini during Spanish rally
Simone Mariella, 28, said her partner, Scott, was taking part in a supercar rally in Barcelona, Spain, when two crooks on an electric scooter targeted him on June 23.
The 33-year-old was sitting stationary at traffic lights in the Lamborghini Aventador.
Scott had his expensive timepiece pinched before the thief and his accomplice zoomed off on the e-scooter.
He was unable to chase after them as he was stuck behind a similar supercar.
Scott, originally from Scotland who now lives in Dubai, was taking part in the Modball Rally in Barcelona when the theft took place.
Simone said her partner reported the theft to the police.
Simone, who originally comes from Germany, said: 'My partner went to all the nearby shops and cafes to ask for CCTV images on the same day. But nobody helped him.'
Luckily, they found an onlooker who filmed it. She added: 'He has emailed the police three times since.'
Simone said: 'We posted it on social media to put pressure on the Spanish police and maybe get some information. Unfortunately, there hasn't been any update.'
She posted the video on TikTok where it went viral. She captioned the clip: 'A [$60,000] watch stolen at a traffic light in Barcelona. Please share to help us find them.'
One local said: 'The thief was faster than the Lamborghini.'
Another claimed: 'Nobody should visit Barcelona, it's no longer a safe place.'
A third added: 'It's not good, but at least he's not stealing from people who are going to go hungry.'
Someone else chimed in: 'Ten years in Barcelona and I got robbed last week, they pulled the necklace from my neck in a few seconds.'
Another said: 'Barcelona has been a cesspool for a long time now, and the authorities don't do anything!'
The police have been approached for comment.

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Daily Mail
37 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
My Revolut card was stolen in Benidorm... and they took out £1,450 cash: CRANE ON THE CASE
In May, I was on holiday in Benidorm when my phone was stolen out of my pocket. It had my Revolut bank card, which I use for free spending abroad, in the case. Whoever took the phone then used Apple Pay to transfer money from my Santander current account to Revolut. In the space of less than an hour, between 10:30pm and 11:30pm, they attempted to withdraw £2,950 at three different cash machines. Of this, £1,450 went through. I wasn't able to get my Revolut account frozen until four days after the card was stolen, as I didn't have my mobile phone to sign in to the app. I disputed the cash withdrawals and lodged a chargeback request but Revolut declined it. I wasn't given the chance to provide evidence or to speak to anyone. It said I was 'responsible for the transaction' and it wasn't fraudulent. B.B Helen Crane, This is Money's consumer champion, replies: Just as on busy high streets at home, thieves target bustling bars and beaches in holiday resorts in their quest to snatch phones. As I've reported before, these thieves aren't interested in the resale value of your mobile. They want to access your money apps and transfer out cash. You told me you feel silly to have left your card inside your phone case, but it's something plenty of us do. You also only had a few hundred pounds on it, as it was a secondary account used for holiday spending money. However, the thieves were able to use Apple Pay on your phone to transfer money from your main Santander account over to the Revolut card. It's unclear why some of the cash withdrawal attempts were declined. You reported the theft to Spanish police, but unfortunately money taken from an ATM is hard to trace. I'm often asked how it's possible for thieves to get into someone's phone, given they are normally protected by a passcode and facial recognition - as yours was. The answer is usually that the phone has been taken from their hand already unlocked, or that they have been 'shoulder surfed'. This means the criminal will observe you from a distance, usually in busy place like a bar, until they see you open your phone using the passcode. Once inside, they can turn off any facial or fingerprint recognition features. I urge anyone to look into features such as Apple's stolen device protection, and Android's theft detection lock, which can prevent this. Once you realised your phone was gone, you tried cancel your Sim card and block your Santander and Revolut accounts, using friends' phones. At this point you weren't aware the cash had gone missing, as you couldn't access your apps. It was still possible you may have simply lost the phone. Santander blocked your account when it received a phone call from the thief impersonating you - but Revolut was much more difficult and you didn't manage to freeze it until you returned home. Revolut is an online bank, and the only way for customers to contact it is to send a message through the app. Customer service can make outbound calls, but the number where you can speak to a real person isn't made available to users. It seems the attitude is, 'Don't call us, we'll call you.' It has an automated phone line to block cards, but you couldn't get this to work on holiday without access to the app and your phone. This line also can't connect you to a human agent. When I called, it said: 'If you are looking to speak to a human, then head over to our chat within the app.' You'd tried messaging here, but you said you thought the responses were from AI, and they weren't helpful. When you did get home, you initiated a chargeback with Revolut for the £1,450 - though this was also through an automated online process. After three days you received the response: 'After careful review, we found that your account activity around the time the transaction was made suggests that you're familiar with the charge. 'As a result, we can't treat this transaction as unauthorised or proceed with this claim.' This was on the basis that the thieves had used your Pin. You told me you thought they got this because they had been watching when you used the card at a bar earlier. You argued the transactions should have been blocked at the cashpoint, because it was a much larger amount than you had ever withdrawn on the card before. In the three months you'd had the account, you'd only spent £878 in total, and hardly any of this was taken out in cash. I contacted Revolut to see if it would be willing to reconsider, given how difficult it was for you to speak to someone and to suspend your account after the phone was stolen. It decided to look at your case again in June, and escalated this to the fraud team. It agreed to pay you back the £1,450 and also paid you £250 in compensation for the delay. However, it also emerged in my conversation with the bank that you had previously admitted to having the Pin for your Revolut card saved in the notes app in your phone. This used the same passcode as the one to get into your phone, which the thieves had. Storing the Pin in this way can be deemed 'gross negligence' by banks, and can mean that they are within their rights to decline your request for a refund, even if you have been defrauded. I understand it can be hard to keep on top of multitudinous Pins and passcodes, but this is truly an awful idea. We urge our customers to take care, remain vigilant to "shoulder surfers" and not store passcodes in unsecured places, for example their notes app There are various apps and tools that claim they can store such information securely, but in my opinion it's still not a good idea. If you really can't memorise the Pin, keep it at home, for example in a locked drawer, and definitely not anywhere near your phone or wallet. A Revolut spokeswoman said: 'We are very sorry to hear about B.B's case, or any instance where our customers are targeted by ruthless and highly sophisticated criminals. 'On further investigation of his case we have issued a full reimbursement for the stolen funds, in addition to a goodwill payment in recognition of the distress experienced in this case. 'Revolut works hard and invests heavily to protect and support customers. We have observed an increase in networks of criminals attempting to steal devices from unsuspecting individuals and we continue to take action to identify and prevent unauthorised access. 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Daily Mail
5 hours ago
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EXCLUSIVE The unlikely suburban HQ of a cocaine smuggling kingpin: How friendly dog-walking pensioner was hiding secret life as an international drug baron who imported £120m of narcotics into UK
With its neatly tended lawn, solar panels on the roof and potted petunias lining the garden path, this suburban bungalow could hardly look any less like the HQ of an international drug smuggling operation. But it was here that Peter Lamb, 66, oversaw a vast criminal conspiracy to import £120million worth of cocaine into Britain - all without raising a flicker of suspicion from his trusting neighbours. The father of three was regularly seen pottering in the back garden of his modest home in Gateshead, and would often stop to pass the time of day by walking his dogs, a placid German shepherd and a springer spaniel puppy. However, unknown to locals on his quiet street of housing association homes occupied mostly by retirees, Lamb had become a major player in organised crime responsible for smuggling one-and-a-half tonnes of cocaine over just a year. 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Another one of his neighbours recalled how he had previously mentioned his business in casual conversation. 'I knew he had a business of some kind, something to do with gardening, but he seemed as though he was semi-retired, he liked to be at home with the dogs and in his own back garden,' they said. 'It's hard to imagine that he was the leader of this thing, it must have been something he got caught up in. He's going to be inside for a long time, he'll be 83 when he gets out.' A third person living on Lamb's road said he had always considered him as nothing more than a 'nice old bloke'. 'He was friendly and said he'd set up a turf business,' they said. 'He even offered me a roll for my garden at home. I'm quite glad now that I didn't take him up on it.' When Lamb first started renting a unit on Sandy Lane Autoparc in Gosforth, Newcastle, no one batted an eyelid. 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Officers who analysed Lamb's phone learned that he had made several trips to the Netherlands to organise the drug shipments. Realising the game was up, he admitted drug smuggling and was handed his hefty jail term. Judge Gavin Doig told him: 'You played a crucial role in the importation into this country of nearly a tonne and a half of cocaine.' The judge added it was a 'significant conspiracy' involving people who were not as easily linked to the drugs as Lamb. The court heard Lamb has significant health problems and admitted he had been an 'idiot' to get involved in something he was unable to get out of. NCA senior investigating officer Al Mullen said: 'Artificial grass is one of the more unusual concealments I've seen used to smuggle cocaine but no matter what tactics criminals use, the NCA will find both the drugs and the importers. 'We caught Lamb red-handed and uncovered his year-long conspiracy to flood UK streets with one-and-a-half tonnes of the drug. 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