Mar del Plata.- The Olympic cycling champion Juan Curuchet suffered a violent robbery at his home in the rural jurisdiction of Batán, about 20 kilometers south of Mar del Plata, where criminals took him and his partner and robbed him of all kinds of valuable elements, including the medals achieved throughout almost three decades of sports career.
The investigation underway by the prosecutor’s office specialized in Crimes against Property, headed by prosecutor Mariano Moyano, was waiting for evidence to move forward with the search for the perpetrators of the incident.
According to the athlete and former Buenos Aires legislator, he was surprised by at least three men during the last hours of Sunday, October 8. He and his partner were already in bed when the hooded men entered at gunpoint. “He told me that he saw a familiar face,” he said, acknowledging that the assault would not have been a specific objective but that they would have chosen this house at random, in a field reached by Route 88 where he was confined some time ago. in search of a quieter life.
He estimates that the criminals remained inside the house for about 40 minutes, the time they took to check all the rooms, load all valuable items and prepare for the escape.
“They took everything they could find, even my medals and recognitions from my sporting career,” explained the Beijing 2008 Olympic champion about this very sad episode that, he acknowledged, ended without having suffered physical attacks, but with permanent intimidation with weapons that “They were carrying,” according to what he could perceive before they were locked up with his partner in a bathroom.
Calmer but hurt by the suffering that this robbery meant and the time he spent with the criminals inside his house, he told LA NACION that he took them to where he had money. “They took all my savings,” he said. And to ask him for more, they pointed the gun at his girlfriend’s head. “I did cycling, I didn’t dedicate myself to a sport that makes money,” she explained to them and she almost convinced them.
He was saved the gold medal achieved with that Beijing 2008 title, he was barely able to convince them that it was not gold. “Where is it?” asked the person handling the robbery. “We can melt it,” he told her when he had it in hand. Curuchet asked him to compare it with others from different lower-grade competitions to show him that they were all similar but not made of valuable metal. “Not that medal, leave it,” asked one of the most complicit, and he threw it on the bed.
On the other hand, they received other smaller distinctions, but in those cases they were made in gold. Among them is the pin given by the International Olympic Committee to those who have reached the top of the podium in that type of competition and which is displayed with the greatest of pride. He had used it in the middle of this year, when he donated to the Olympic Museum in Lausanne the bicycle with which he obtained his greatest achievement, 15 years ago. “They took the effort of my entire life,” he lamented, with tears.
The calmness they showed in his actions was reflected in another situation that occurred, when they had already obtained cash. “They started counting the money in front of us,” she said. Police officers participating in the investigation would later explain to Curuchet that it is a common practice among criminals so that after the escape none of the gang keeps more than their share in the division of the loot.
He described them as a ringleader over 50 years old accompanied by two other younger ones. To escape, they turned to the Curuchet couple’s car, a VW Gol that could be located in the southern area of Mar del Plata, in a vacant, dismantled and burned area. “I am destroyed,” said Curuchet, already retired from politics after having been a Buenos Aires senator and having an active participation close to the provincial management of Daniel Scioli.
Curuchet won the American event in Beijing 2008 along with his teammate Walter Pérez. When he achieved this title he was 43 years old. The area where this robbery occurred is a field that he acquired with her brothers and where they also took her mother to live, after she was the victim of a robbery in the house where she and her father They had raised them.
In this case, the criminals tied the hands of him and his girlfriend. They were going to take the former cyclist’s car, an Audi, but they didn’t understand it because it is automatic. That’s why they opted for the couple’s, where they carried everything they could, since they had to give up the televisions due to their size. “Is this a country house?” they asked because there were a few more houses within walking distance. But he clarified to them that it was a family farm, where his mother lived in one house, and his brother, Gabriel, lived in another. “Now I’ll go and play it,” the ringleader threatened before locking them in the bathroom and fleeing.
Fuente: Darío Palavecino- LA NACION