The holiday in Ibiza of Patricia Maldonado, a well-known Portuguese journalist and television presenter, was overshadowed by a serious incident. In the early hours of the morning, the holiday home where she was staying with a group of friends was burgled while everyone was asleep, Maldonado explained in an interview with Conexão Viagem. The burglars made off with cash but left behind personal documents such as passports and residence permits.
According to Maldonado, all valuables had initially been stored in a safe. However, as she was due to leave before the rest of the group, she asked to retrieve her belongings the night before her departure. “I put everything in my backpack — passport, residence card, money — and placed it behind my head when I went to sleep”, she explained.
Her shock came at around 4.30 a.m., when she woke up to go to the airport and discovered that the backpack was gone. “I woke my friends up thinking I must have been mistaken, that I had put it somewhere else. But it wasn’t in the wardrobe, under the bed or anywhere”, she recalled.
The situation became even more worrying when the group searched the house. In an outdoor area overlooking the pool, they found several bags lying on the ground, completely empty. “They took the money, but they didn’t take any documents. No passports, no residence cards. Everything was still there”, she said.
A common type of theft in Ibiza
Maldonado said she had to go straight to the airport and did not have time to report the incident. Later, a friend went to the police station with her husband, where officers explained that this is a common type of theft in tourist accommodation: silent break-ins during the early hours of the morning, selective theft of cash and the abandonment of items with no resale value.
The journalist said she had never heard of this type of modus operandi. “They told us that there is a belief that gas is sometimes used to put people to sleep, but the truth is that they came in while we were inside, asleep, without anyone noticing”, she concluded.