Carpineto Romano - On the afternoon of Holy Saturday, a 67-year-old woman was to become the next victim of a well-known scam. But the senior citizen and her family saw through the plan and made it possible for four people to be arrested in the act.
Sensitization shows effect
The process followed a familiar pattern: a caller posed as a police officer and claimed that a jeweler had been robbed in Rome. The getaway car allegedly bore her husband's license plate number. A colleague would be coming to her house shortly to check whether her jewelry was the stolen goods. The aim of this pretext: to gain access to the house and the valuables.
However, the woman's family had attended Carabinieri information events and recognized the deception immediately. Even before the perpetrators arrived at the house, they dialed 112, whereupon the Carabinieri from Carpineto Romano and Montelanico prepared a trap at lightning speed. While some of the officers calmed and secured the woman inside the house, the rest lay in wait outside.
Loot from previous theft seized
Shortly afterwards, a 20-year-old man who had got out of a rented Fiat 500 rang the doorbell. The police intervened immediately and stopped him and three accomplices waiting in the car. The suspects are two men, aged 49 and 20, and two women, aged 33 and 22, all from the Campania region. With the exception of the youngest offender, all were already known to the police.
During the search of the car, the officers seized the 20-year-old's cell phone and several pieces of gold jewelry. According to investigations, these were not from the incident in Carpineto Romano, but presumably from another successful scam that took place the same morning. The competent court in Velletri has now confirmed the arrests and imposed a residence restriction on the 49-year-old. The three other suspects have been released pending trial.
