Last August, they had committed extortion using the now well-known method of the fake policeman and the fake lawyer, deceiving an elderly woman from Oristano. Now, two residents of Campania have been arrested. On that occasion, the victim had been contacted on her home phone and a man, who had introduced himself as a self-styled police marshal, had told her that her son had run over a pregnant woman and was therefore at risk of arrest . To avoid this, the woman would have had to pay a sum in cash or, alternatively, hand over some jewelry. To apply further pressure, she had also been told that her son had said that he would commit suicide if he were arrested.
While she was on the landline, the victim was also contacted on her cell phone. On the other end, another man, who pretended to be her son's lawyer, told her that he would send one of his collaborators to collect the money and the jewels to prevent her son's arrest. Which happened shortly after: a man showed up at the old woman's door and, in addition to collecting the money, also did the same with the jewels naively indicated by the victim .
While the fake lawyer, with an accomplice waiting for him in the car, was leaving the woman's house, they were noticed by an inspector of the Flying Squad, who was off duty at the time and unaware of what had happened . After a few hours, the woman realized the scam and raised the alarm. The police officers of the Flying Squad of Oristano, thanks also to the information provided by their colleague, after a few hours identified the two who in the meantime had managed to leave Sardinia. One of the two then returned to the island after just a week and, with the same ruse, had extorted money and jewelry from another victim. But this time he was stopped at the Port of Cagliari, with the arrest of him and another accomplice .
This is certainly not a new episode: very often, even in recent months, this type of extortion has been widespread and almost always the perpetrators have been identified. With the Police emphasizing how, in these cases, it is always necessary to be suspicious of those asking for money or personal effects and contact the police or friends and relatives.
