This seat taken? Thieves busted for stealing over 1,000 restaurant chairs in Spain
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 22/10/2025 (303 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
MADRID (AP) — Spanish police have busted a criminal group dedicated to stealing your seat. Literally.
Spain’s National Police said Wednesday that they had arrested seven people suspected of stealing more than 1,100 chairs from outdoor seating areas at restaurants and bars in Madrid and another nearby municipality in just two months.
The group of six men and a woman worked at night to pilfer the chairs from 18 different establishments in Madrid and Talavera de la Reina, a smaller city to the southwest of the capital, in August and September. The estimated impact of the stolen property was around 60,000 euros ($69,000), according to police.
The suspects, who face charges of theft and belonging to a criminal organization, resold the chairs in Spain but also in Morocco and Romania, police said.
In Spain, many restaurants and bars leave tables and chairs, which are usually made of metal or hard plastic, outdoors during the night. The chairs will normally be kept in stacks and chained down.