The evening began normally for two Swiss tourists visiting Naples in southern Italy to enjoy the summer. The two were sitting drinking on the terrace of a restaurant in Trieste e Trento square, one of the main squares in Naples, when a man fired a gun at them and took a watch from them. Get away quickly.
Surveillance footage shows the two, distraught, explaining to a waiter what happened to them and then sitting down to eat dinner again. Only, Swiss evening is not the end of their feelings. Seven minutes after the robbery, one of the robber’s accomplices approaches their table, but this time with his hands up to show he’s unarmed.
Rapina at an tourista swizzero at an caffi di piazza Trieste e Trento: Pistola alla testa per portargli via l’orologio e pai giolo reconsecnano perce val poco. La denuncia dei titolari del locale: “Tutto questo in centro città. Serve un presidio constante delle forze dell’ordine” pic.twitter.com/aKRU1yKg39
— Francesco Borelli (@NotizieFrance) July 19, 2022
Antonio Visconti, owner of the bar where the two were sitting, Tell CNN After realizing that the object of the crime is fake, the criminal comes to apologize on behalf of his colleague and return the stolen watch. “They came back saying “sorry sorry” Maybe try and keep it unannounced.»
Hundreds of thousands of euros
The disappointment must have been huge for the Neapolitan thieves, as the watch was a replica of a luxury watch by Richard Mille, worth several hundred thousand euros.
Follow-up robberies are a growing problem in Naples, and gang confidence is on the rise, said Francesco Borrelli, a consultant for the Campania region. They allow themselves to point guns at the heads of tourists sitting on the terrace of a bar located in the middle of an important square in the city center. In June, the city’s tourism director encouraged hotels to provide plastic wristbands to their customers during their stay..
The speed with which the thieves returned shows how well they pick up. “They take the watches and immediately resell them. Borrelli explains to CNN, But the people they bring are nice and immediately realize they are fake.So this process takes seven minutes.