Wow... it's 2 o'clock and I've just witnessed a burglary. About 10 or 20 minutes ago, there was a loud banging noise outside. I should note that I'm awake because I've got a holiday tomorrow. Anyway, this loud noise drew me out to my terrace, where I saw other neighbours emerging and shutters being opened due to the noise. Then we heard the noise of glass smashing. At around this time, some people in the flats across the street started whistling and shouting things along the lines of Gillipolas! and Por la calle!.
Immediately after the shouts, a youth rushed out from under my apartment block and into a white car that had been waiting there. The car sped off, and it was then that I realised that the bar downstairs had been robbed.
After a couple of minutes pottering about, my curiosty got the better of me and I donned jeans and hoodie to go downstairs and have a look. The police were already there (both Guardia Urbana and Policia Nacional, no Mossos to be seen). One of the bar's metal shutters seemed to have been cut or sheared off and the window behind it was smashed. The bar's owners (who live in the building, I believe) were already in the small local, with some police officers.
I got talking with Fernando, a Mexican chap who had also come down to see the result of a robbery that woke dozens of people. While he interrogated me about where I lived (I made sure not to give too much away... maybe he was in league with the robbers... you can't trust anyone), we discussed what we'd seen and he told me that he liked the fact that girls go topless on Catalan beaches. He then told me that he was from Chiapas. He recommended that I visit some of Mexico's cheesier resort towns, and when I suggested that he liked them for the topless sunbathers, he pretended not to understand.
We parted on good terms though, him moving on to debate the crime with other vecinos and me to the apartment building, checking the door was securely shut behind me.
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...a blog by Tom Clarke in Barcelona, Catalonia, covering politics, culture and society