This seat taken? 7 arrested after over 1,000 restaurant chairs stolen in Spain – National

Spanish police have busted a criminal group dedicated to stealing your seat. Literally.

Spain’s National Police said Wednesday that they’d arrested seven people suspected of stealing greater than 1,100 chairs from outdoor seating areas at restaurants and bars in Madrid and one other nearby municipality in only two months.

The group of six men and a lady 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 (US$69,000), based on police.

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The suspects, who face charges of theft and belonging to a criminal organization, resold the chairs in Spain but in addition in Morocco and Romania, police said.

In Spain, many restaurants and bars leave tables and chairs, which are frequently fabricated from metal or hard plastic, outdoors throughout the night. The chairs will normally be kept in stacks and chained down.