Three people were located this Tuesday morning in an apartment on Palafrugell street, in the Pedret neighborhood of Girona, when the owners accessed the property to appraise it before closing its sale. The alert to 112 mobilized the Mossos d'Esquadra, who ended up getting the occupants to leave the property.
The discovery occurred just a week after the property's last visit, during which there was no sign of occupation. Already on the landing, the owners suspected something had changed upon seeing a rug at the entrance, an unusual sign in an apartment that remained empty and was about to be handed over.
The occupants said they paid 2,000 euros for the apartment key
When the agents arrived at the property, the three occupants stated that they had paid 2,000 euros for the apartment key. Initially, they also communicated that they did not intend to leave.
The Mossos d'Esquadra maintained a conversation with them within the operation opened after the call to 112. After that intervention, the three people collected their belongings and left the apartment, once they were identified by the Catalan police.
Sources from the sector place the collection of keys for occupied apartments within a practice linked to schemes that obtain money by facilitating entry into empty homes. In this case, it is not recorded that the Mossos d'Esquadra have confirmed the existence of an organization behind the access to the Pedret property.
Property links the case to another block, but the Mossos do not confirm it
The owners maintain that the occupants could have been part of a group that resided illegally in a block on Ronda Ferran Puig. That extreme, however, has not been confirmed by the Mossos d'Esquadra.
After what happened on Palafrugell street, the owners have opted to reinforce the home with new protection measures. The decision also comes in a context in which Girona has a recent judicial criterion to accelerate evictions in very specific cases.
The Audiència de Girona last year endorsed the express eviction without prior judicial authorization in illegal occupations detected within the first 24 hours, a route designed to expedite the expulsion of occupants and the subsequent processing of the case.
After Tuesday's incident, the property has decided to install an alarm and an anti-squatter door on the Pedret apartment.