A Spanish man from the city of Malaga was recently arrested after reportedly holding a plumber at gunpoint because he asked for too much money to fix a broken water pipe.
On November 4th, when the unnamed plumber received a call from a man asking for help with a broken water pipe in his home, he never imagined he would end up a hostage of the would-be client. Upon reaching the man’s home and seeing the problem that needed fixing, the plumber gave him an estimate of the cost, which caused the man to go into a rage. Apparently, he found the cost of the operation so obscenely high that he pulled out a gun and threatened to kill the man. The man’s neighbors called the police after hearing several boom-like noizes from his apartment windows, but when officers arrived, the assailant refused to release his prisoner, threatening to detonate a butane cylinder if anyone tried getting through his door.
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According to Malaga Hoy, at one point, the armed man appeared in the window of his apartment with his hostage, which gave police the chance to observe his firearm and determine that it was nothing more than a replica. Armed with this piece of knowledge, and having evacuated the entire building to avoid an even bigger tragedy in case the butane cylinder threat was real, police began negotiating with the armed man.
After back-and-forth negotiations, police managed to convince the armed man to open his front door slightly, so they could confirm that his hostage, the plumber, was ok. When the door opened, special forces stormed in, overwhelming the man and rescuing the victim. The plumber later confirmed that the man started being aggressive after hearing his quote for fixing the leaky water pipe. It’s unclear how much he had asked for…
The enraged man is currently in police custody and will probably spend time behind bars.