This Tuesday night two people who they had rented an apartment in the Sea & Forest building for a few days from Punta del Este, through Booking, they changed the locks of several houses in the tower to rob themin a criminal strategy that real estate agencies in the area They warn that it occurs “very frequently”.
As reported by El País and confirmed from the building to The Observer, the two delinquents they took the cylinder of 20 locks from different houses and they put another cylinder that it was opened with a key at his disposalwith which they could access all the apartments freely.
In a statement sent to the owners by the CM Studio, which manages the building, it was reported that “these people were professional thieves.” “His way of operating, which they had already used in Torre Millenium and other buildings, was as follows: They rented apartments through said application for two or three days and at night they stole”reported from the administration, according to El País.
Sources from the Maldonado Police Headquarters detailed The Observer than Thursday received the complaint about the situation and they went to the building to see the recordings from the building’s security cameras.
At night, while the policemen were looking at the cameras, one of the suspects entered with a woman “through the front door, saying goodnight and going straight to unit 403 (where they had rented), unaware of the operation”indicated the CM Study in its statement. Minutes later they were captured.
The woman was released, but the 35-year-old man was made available to the Prosecutor’s Office, they pointed out from the Headquarters. This Thursday the authorities they arrested the other person responsible for the factsin a raid on his house in which They seized “several locks, perfumes and relevant evidence for the investigation.”
Prosecutor charged the two criminals to 90 days of total house arrest by “twenty crimes of especially aggravated theft, nineteen of them attempted,” Maldonado police sources said.
Real Estate Chamber recommends “not specifying rentals” by online platforms
The Real Estate Chamber Punta del Este – Maldonado (Cipem) recommended to the population “do not specify rentals through the platforms” of online rentalsafter becoming aware of several robberies of this type.
The agency said in a statement published this Friday his “deep concern” about this new criminal strategyRealized by “pseudo-tenants, people who rent an apartment through the different online rental platforms” to “enter the buildings” and then “access the rest of the apartments by changing locks and taking the owners’ belongings.”
“This maneuver is a new ‘way’ that unscrupulous people have been using to enter buildings without attracting attention and that is leaving homeowners harmed and buildings violated,” they wrote.
According to the Real Estate Chamber, these robberies They have been happening “for a long time” and currently “they are happening very frequently”. For this reason, the organization alerted the owners of the area “to take this issue carefully,” and stressed that they work “with all the administrators and the police command.”
“We urge owners not to specify rentals through the platforms or to be careful when renting their properties for very short stays now”they requested from Cipem.
In addition, they affirmed that it is “of the utmost importance” that the law “on housing for tourist use” which is already in Parliament, and which would allow buildings to incorporate into their regulations “the prohibition of unregistered temporary leasing”.
