“Felix the Cat” Back in Slammer
by Rod Hughes
It appears that “Gato Felix” Araya, Costa Rica’s most famous jailbird, may have to go back to school to keep up with advances in state-of-the-art security systems.
In a country that does not particularly glorify its wrongdoers, Felix, whose nickname means Felix the Cat, is an exception because of his colorful personality and general good cheer, even when he is sentenced to yet another term in jail, which well might happen if police are right about his attempting to burglarize a cooperative in San Ramon.
He entered the building, police say, and like a true professional, disconnected the video cameras and what he thought were the alarm cables. When he heard no alarm, Gato Felix went to work, while his accomplice applied his actylene torch to the safe.
Unfortunately for poor Felix, he had actually disabled part of the air conditioning system!
And the reason he had not heard any bells or whistles is that the alarm was one of those new-fangled silent types that notify the authorities, in this case a private monitoring service that notified the cops in Grecia, but do not tip off the burglar.
Gato Felix is currently residing in the familiar San Sebastian holding cells with his accomplice under a six-month preventive prison term while his case wends its way through the court system.
Again.