The average is one that causes apprehension: almost one "hit" per week, including smashed windows, raids and thefts. In the area between Viale Colombo and Piazza Santa Maria, the mood of the business owners is dark.
The new raid
After the attempted incursion a few weeks ago at the Cafè Louge Bar Sa Prazza, complete with bulletproof glass hit with large stones and damaged, now it was once again the turn of the nearby venue, Locanda Caddeo.
The modus operandi is always the same: broken glass with a large brick and then inside to take away the little money in the till. There is doubt, according to the other traders in the area, that those who acted were the same ones who had been the protagonists of the other episodes: a boy with his face covered and a woman acting as a lookout outside. After an initial intervention by the police, investigations will begin as soon as the owners of the restaurant file a complaint this morning.
In the last two months, the same episodes also occurred at the Taccas restaurant and indeed at Locanda Caddeo, as well as at the bar in Via Della Musica, where 300 euros had been taken from the cash register. And then even earlier at the Md market, at the pizzeria and at a tattoo shop where all the equipment had been stolen.
Fear and anger
«We are convinced that it is always the same person», says Giorgia Trincas, owner of Sa Prazza. «It stopped for a few days and now it has started again. At Locanda Caddeo it seems like he did everything as usual. He took a large brick, broke the glass and went in to look for the chest. The truth is that we don't feel safe. In the morning at 6.30 when we girls arrive, we are afraid that he will attack us to enter. It would also be important for the Municipality to place cameras in Viale Colombo because this would facilitate investigations."
There was also an attempted raid on the Ice Street ice cream parlor recently. The owner Roberto Congiu says: «They tried to force the shutters but luckily they didn't succeed. A year ago, however, they entered from the back and broke the bathroom windows." Having said that, «it's not that these episodes happen too often in this area, they happen continuously and it's frustrating because we don't know what to do. I am very sorry for my colleagues. I'm lucky enough to have shutters, but those with exposed windows are unfortunately the most affected."
The suspects
Not far away, Alessio Pisano from the New Glam hairdressing salon is also worried, «they have entered the businesses around here everywhere. Luckily we have cameras up here and also shutters with padlocks. We are living in a bad situation. Even in the evening when it gets dark we are forced to close the doors out of fear. The way they act is always the same, they arrive at night, in twos and they break the windows with stones." Even in the images of the attempted incursion in Sa Prazza a few weeks ago we can see clearly: there is a young man with his face covered by a scarf who throws the stone against the glass «and the pole outside» Trincas had explained, «that we have no doubts were a woman."
Giorgia Daga
