The Bruges criminal court has sentenced three people to 20 months in prison for a home burglary and gang formation, after a 15-year-old girl caught them in the act.
The girl from Bruges was home alone on the morning of 20 September, 2025 when the doorbell rang repeatedly. When she saw an unknown man standing there, the girl decided not to open the door. However, she heard noise from inside the house and discovered a man in her bedroom.
On realising the house was occupied, the burglars, a 36-year-old Cuban and two Chileans, fled with a Hermès handbag, but threw their loot away outside almost immediately.
Thanks to the girl's actions in alerting authorities, Vanina S., 36, was quickly caught. The Cuban woman pretended to be jogging along the Koning Albert I-laan in Sint-Michiels when she was apprehended by police.
According to her own statement, she was staying in Bruges as a tourist and sex worker, but had gotten lost. Later, S. admitted that she rang the doorbell and stood on lookout.
Camera footage showed that two male suspects fled in a taxi. Brian V., 27, and Marcelo G., 26, were identified with the help of their Chilean documents.
A month later, V. was arrested in Rome, but G. is still at large. S. was released after two months of pre-trial detention and also failed to appear.
The defence explained that Brian V. had met his co-defendants by chance in Paris. According to their own account, they came to Europe as tourists, but had run out of money.
"That is why they decided to commit the burglary, but they did not know that the girl was at home," said lawyer Marleen De Soete.
The defence argued for a suspended sentence, with the exception of the pre-trial detention.
The judge sentenced the absent defendants to 20 months of effective imprisonment.
Brian V. also received 20 months in prison, of which only the pre-trial detention was effective.
