Calvia Guardia Civil arrested a couple of young British tourists aged 22 and 21 on Wednesday afternoon at Palma airport for failing to have paid a 192-euro bill at a hotel in Palmanova.
According to judicial sources, at around 12.30 p.m. the two suspects went to the reception of the establishment to check out.
They tried to make the payment by giving the receptionist their credit card number.
The receptionist told them that this was not possible and the couple told her that they were going out for a moment to withdraw money from a cash machine and would come back. They never came back.
The hotel manager reported the incident to the police and the Guardia Civil contacted the airport to check if they were there. And they were, but it wasn’t long before they were due to fly home.
The Guardia Civil however managed to arrive in time and were able to arrest them for fraud.
Both, who deposited the 192 euros in court, were taken to court on Thursday and were released and able to return home after buying new tickets.
A police source said: “Everyone was a bit surprised that they’d wanted to cause themselves so many problems over a relatively small amount. We’d have handled things exactly the same if they’d tried to do a runner without paying a four or five-figure bill but getting yourself into this sort of mess over a couple of hundred euros makes you wonder what they were thinking about. It backfired on them spectacularly."