Cretin Ruins Everyone’s Day after Robbery

Albuquerque –

On November 12th, 2025, around 12:53PM a motor vehicle crash happened at the intersection of San Mateo and Haines NE involving a sedan and one of ABQ RAW’s vehicles.

Some people from the sedan were taken to the hospital with unknown medical complaints. Both vehicles involved were totaled during the crash. We will refer all questions about this incident to New Mexico State Police and Albuquerque Police as they handled the investigation.

The crash was related to 43-year-old Manuel Torres who had just committed a robbery of an iPad and other things from a victim. The victim observed Torres stealing items from her SUV while she sat in a friend’s car at the PIMA Medical Institute business.

The victim tracked her iPad to a Starbucks at the intersection of San Mateo and Haines and she approached the suspect on her own without police assistance. At some point after retrieving her stolen property the victim and her friends fled the area and coincidently slammed into one of our reporters vehicle as he was driving to the office.

According to the criminal complaint, a witness at Starbucks recorded the altercation with the victim and Torres. The victim was able to retrieve her backpack with her contents off of Torres and also recovered her phone from the suspect. The suspect then fled eastbound on foot east on Haines and then headed south on Madeira.

A short saturation of the area by State Police ground units and assistance from their air support unit assisted them in locating Torres and they were able to take him into custody.

Torres is now charged with robbery and he also had a warrant out for his arrest. He has a pre-trial custody hearing on November 14th, 2025.