Spanish police have arrested two people, including the former housekeeper of Real Madrid legend Iker Casillas, over the theft of luxury watches valued at approximately £175,000 from his Madrid home.
The two suspects a female who was Casillas’ housekeeper and a gun-wielding security guard at his upscale residential compound were nabbed following a police entrapment operation when their plan was thwarted. The two were said to have swapped Casillas’ authentic designer timepieces for cheap counterfeits to avoid detection.
The thieves planned to break the stolen watches and sell their parts separately, thereby making it difficult for them to be traced, according to Spanish media sources. The collection consisted of a series of gold Rolex watches valued at over €50,000 each.
Casillas sounded the alarm when he spotted inconsistencies in his valuable collection, which triggered a surreptitious police probe that resulted in the arrests. During a raid at the suspects’ home, police officers found remnants of broken watches corresponding to models belonging to the football icon.
The authorities observe that Casillas, who is known to be fond of luxury watches, did not have an exhaustive list of his watches, which were housed in several rooms in his home. His ex-wife, journalist Sara Carbonero, was also interrogated in the course of the investigation.
Casillas, who is generally considered one of the all-time great goalkeepers in football, appeared 510 times for Real Madrid over a 16-year period before moving to FC Porto. He retired from pro football in 2020 after experiencing a heart attack in training the previous year.
