A 41-year-old man was arrested on November 14, suspected of carrying out several robberies targeting elderly women in the Lapa, Santos, and Alcântara areas of Lisbon, believing they “would not offer any resistance.”
“The suspect roamed the streets looking for elderly women who, in his perception, would not offer any resistance. After selecting a victim, he would sneak up from behind and violently yank the purse from her hands. In several cases, the force used caused the victims to fall helplessly to the ground, leaving them defenseless,” detailed the Public Security Police (PSP) in a statement sent to newsrooms on Saturday.
The authorities reported that the individual fled with the victims’ purses, leaving them “without money, without a mobile phone, without house keys, and, in many cases, without their medications, completely deprived of their essential belongings and emotionally disoriented”.
“Several elderly women were surprised by this wrongdoer,” stated the PSP.
The man, suspected of committing three counts of aggravated robbery and four counts of robbery, was presented to judicial authorities for an initial judicial questioning and has been remanded in preventive detention.
