Theft from within a restaurant in Dolores

I will be very careful how I word this.  

Four of us had been out and decided to have a menu del dia stopping at Casa Pepe in Dolores.  It was somewhere we had stopped 2 weeks previously.  My wallet contains all sorts of lists together with 2 debit cards, 1 credit card, copies of my driving licence and residencia.  As a result, it was quite bulky and not comfortable to sit on.  This was placed in the centre of our corner table with my glasses case.  The waitress asked me to move these to the end of the table which was out of our direct line of sight.  No other dining tables were close or in use and I assumed this was to facilitate placing items on the table.  

While we were eating a waiter came to the end of the table with a spare paper table covering and scrambled on the floor at the end of our table. Towards the end of the meal, for which we were all sober, I turned to locate my glasses and wallet.  The wallet had gone!  It was not under the table.  None of us had left the table during the entire meal.  The only people other than the four us that had come near were the waiter and waitress who dealt with us.  The waiter went to check the paper tablecloth to see if it had somehow fallen into it while he was at our table doing whatever at the end of the table saying there was nothing there.

The waitress reluctantly, it seemed, phoned the local police who arrived within a few minutes.  We had refused to leave or pay the bill until the police had seen us.  We explained what had happened and the police spoke to the staff involved.  They also checked the bin in the kitchen area where the paper tablecloth had been disposed of.  They found my credit card within the bin  which was within the kitchen, but no wallet etc!!!!

I am confident that most would suspect the same as we did!

To rub salt in the wound we had to pay for the meal with the credit card that was found inside the bin inside the kitchen of Casa Pepe!

I appreciate that I should not have left the wallet in view, but at the time and throughout there was only 4 of us and staff anywhere near us throughout.

Please be aware that you too could be an innocent victim of something similar.  An afternoon spent providing a statement to the Guardia Civil just adds trauma.

Iain