A fake knife grinder defrauded an elderly woman and forced her to hand over €300 . A scam involving a man pretending to repair gas stove nozzles has reached Stintino , targeting an 85-year-old pensioner.
The incident occurred on Wednesday morning, July 16, when a man of Sicilian origins stopped in front of the victim's home in the town center, offering to fix the breakdown and asking for €20 for the work done . The pensioner asked to wait until her son arrived so he could withdraw the money from the bank. So the scammer offered to drive her to the bank branch in his car to complete the transaction. Once he had withdrawn €300, the man drove her back to her home, snatching the money from her hands before fleeing . The shocked woman called for help; someone photographed the scammer's car, and he managed to escape .
A few minutes later, the woman's son alerted the Carabinieri. Only a few hours later, officers from the Stintino station were able to identify the perpetrator, already known to law enforcement, and report him to the judicial authorities. "Fortunately, thanks to eyewitness accounts, a photo taken of the moving car, and video surveillance cameras, law enforcement identified him and reported him," the elderly woman's son recounts. "For this , I thank the Carabinieri and everyone who worked to identify the perpetrator ," he adds, "and I would urge elderly and lonely people to be extremely cautious of strangers who, during this peak tourist season, roam the town looking for scams and easy pickpockets."