A 40 year old man, dubbed ‘Spiderman’ by locals, was arrested in Málaga at the end of a rather curious chase.
On Wednesday afternoon, in the La Palma area of the city, a man was spotted on the roof of a twenty-two storey building, apparently trying to gain access to an apartment owned by his mother but which is currently uninhabited. Residents in the block called the police.
The man, who had by this time managed to get into the building, heard about the impending arrival of the officers of the law and decided it was time to make his escape. Down the front of the building! Exiting via a balcony, he scaled the outside of the building from the thirteenth floor, a height of around 30 metres. However, almost to the ground, the police arrived, and so up he went again.
Reaching the eighth floor, he found that the police, using the more conventional route of the stairs, were waiting to arrest him. So down he went again. On the fifth floor he entered an apartment via the balcony, preventing the occupants from leaving and asking them not to ‘give him away’. But the police knew he was in there and broke down the door, whereupon the local Spiderman headed for the balcony once more.
He managed to jump onto the railings of a fourth floor balcony but then found that his earlier exertions had drained him of energy and he was finally captured. He was charged with attempted breaking and entering and illegal confinement.