They contacted an 85-year-old woman living in a village in the Marmilla area and told her—one identified himself as a police marshal—that her daughter had been involved in an accident and that if she wanted to avoid trouble with the law, she should hand over her money and jewelry. Out of fear, she complied, handing everything over to another self-styled soldier.
It's the classic "fake carabinieri" scam that was implemented by two twenty-year-olds from Campania who were arrested yesterday in a B&B in Oristano by the Carabinieri of the Ghilarza company in collaboration with their colleagues from the capital.
The raid was launched as part of their efforts to monitor criminal gangs involved in fraud, theft, and extortion targeting vulnerable individuals, especially the elderly. Following the victim's call to 112, the officers began a complex tailing operation after spotting the scammers in a small car. They then raided the accommodation where they were staying (one under a false name).
During the search, the officers found, hidden in the cabinets of the room, €14,000 in banknotes, a fine wooden box, numerous gold jewelry pieces consisting of precious stones, watches, rings, necklaces, brooches, bracelets, medallions, and other items of considerable economic and, above all, sentimental value that had been stolen shortly before.
Some of the jewels, it later emerged, were the loot from a similar scam in Cagliari, also targeting an 80-year-old woman, who was defrauded in the same way on Wednesday morning.
The two criminals were held in Massama prison. And they aren't the first "fake Carabinieri" to fall into the hands of real Carabinieri: this is the fifth operation by the Oristano force to identify those responsible for scams targeting vulnerable individuals, such as the elderly.
Enrico Fresu