Pordenone. The gang of freeloaders who prey on parties and inaugurations

PORDENONE – The “gang of crashers”but also the “serial freeloaders“. They have become a kind of nightmare for everyone who has to inaugurate a new store, the opening of a business or anything else that involves a toasts and some canapés to start off on the right foot. They glide like vultures over the carcasses, except that in this case the preys are the laid tables and the bottles of wine that remain unattended among the glasses and plastic plates. And once they arrive they massacre everything there is to eat and drink: canapés, pizzas, sandwiches and if they are lucky and the inauguration is one of the “important” ones they even manage to gobble first courses of pasta, hot or cold ago little difference, any type of cheese and down to the elbow with the sausages to cut. When they leave, little or nothing is left on the table. Those who have seen them at work have compared them to the locusts of biblical memory.

THE ORGANIZATION
This also happens with the openings of new businesses which – fortunately – continue to take place even if times of crisis give little incentive to open new stores. Freeloaders in style, only this time they may have been spotted by some traders who had decided to have a little party by raising the new shutters. In truth, the fact that the “gang of crashers” was real in Pordenone and in the province and not an urban legend, as perhaps happens in other similar stories, was confirmed some time ago by some merchants who had inaugurated their premises. Outside, in fact, they had set up a counter with a pre-cut ham, a nice large porchetta, several kilos of bread and some bottles of refined wine. Some guests had already arrived, mostly friends or at least regulars of the previous business. «At a certain point – says the innkeeper of the restaurant who was inaugurating the new management and who prefers to remain anonymous to avoid reprisals – I realized that the external stall where I had placed the refreshments was surrounded by several people. I didn’t immediately notice, in fact, I was happy, because there were a lot of people. Only a few minutes later much of the stuff on display that was supposed to be used for the entire ceremony was gone. I also saw about twenty people who had two, three full plates in their hands. Two also had as many bottles of wine. They sat outside, ate and then left.”

THE RESEARCHES

These were people who were not customers of the previous establishment, they were not friends or even acquaintances of the innkeeper. Perfect strangers. «The next day – he continues – I wanted to check with other colleagues who had recently opened and who had had small refreshments and practically everyone had been “assaulted” by this gang of freeloaders. Between us, we all had one thing in common: to warn people about the party we had written about the appointment on social media, marking the time and place.” That’s it: crashers, freeloaders and even techies. Yes, because it is clear that the “locust gang” had searched for places to meet on Facebook and had started with the punitive expedition. That’s not all yet. It seems, in fact, but there is still no concrete evidence even though many are looking for it, that the gang of crashers also has a sort of chat on which to meet for the next stall to plunder. Meanwhile, a counteroffensive has been taken: at the next inaugurations there will be an official invitation on paper and the banquet, where possible, will be inside and well supervised. Who knows if it will be enough.

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