PESARO – The modus operandi is one of the consolidated ones: they wait for the families to leave the house to enter and steal, acting undisturbed. And even the reactions of the victims, at the sight of the thieves passing by, are similar: anger, frustration, fear. But you never get used to it. «Believe me, it was a shock, where they went was devastated» says Franco Rossi who suffered a theft on Saturday afternoon in his house in Villa Fastiggi, in via Achilli.
«They went out for a couple of hours with my wife – he continues – it was 5pm and we returned at 7.15pm. They had time to rummage through the entire sleeping area, three bedrooms and the bathrooms reduced to a mess: drawers overturned, wardrobes open, beds unmade, clothes scattered everywhere, she couldn’t walk. In the end what you suffer is not just the theft, the disappearance of family objects to which you are tied by an emotional value, but it is the feeling that sticks with you: the feeling that someone, a stranger, has violated your privacy, has put his hands in your things. It’s ugly. Really. And you are left with the fear that it could happen again.”
Ground floor
The retired Rossi family usually goes away for a couple of hours in the afternoon also because the wife goes to visit her ninety-year-old mother. A consolidated habit, so much so as to instill the suspicion that someone may have noted their movements. «The paradox – continues the head of the family – is that we were abroad for about ten days and nothing happened. Shortly after we returned we had this unwelcome surprise.”
The apartment targeted is on the ground floor and the thieves had an easy time passing through a French window which was forced open with a crowbar. «When we returned – he points out – we immediately realized that something was wrong: the drawers of the desk were open and the watches it contained had disappeared from the glass cabinet. I confess that I was scared. I was afraid that the thieves were still in the house: a very bad feeling. We did not venture into the sleeping area. I called the police and waited for the patrol to arrive. Only after the inspection was over did we gain courage. They had searched everywhere and managed to find jewels, gold and even my wife’s wedding ring. Luckily they were unable to discover the key that opened the safe. But I repeat: it’s not so much for the value of what they steal from you, but for the bad feeling they leave inside you. Now we are afraid. And I don’t know how long I’ll go on.” At Villa Fastiggi we still remember the exasperation of a year ago, the terrible winter of serial thefts with exacerbated spirits and residents who went out in the evening to monitor the areas. It’s the past, but not too much. Because the requests that had been made regarding safety, despite good intentions, did not materialize.
The requests
«We had asked the Municipality for cameras in sensitive areas – explains Luca Pandolfi of Fratelli d’Italia, opposition neighborhood councilor – for more checks and the presence of patrols as a deterrent. Seeing security features such as video surveillance or even local police cars would already be a sign. – But we are still here to lengthen the list of houses burgled.”
