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The gang that carried out thefts with the so-called coin technique was defeated by agents of the Flying Squad of the Cremona Police Headquarters. Four South Americans are being investigated as the alleged perpetrators of 35 attacks committed in Cremona and its province, in other cities in Lombardy and in other regions such as Emilia and Piedmont. Against a 30 year old Peruvianconsidered the gang leaderMobile performed the measurement of precautionary custody in prison.
A now sadly known modus operandi, that of the coin scam, implemented in supermarket car parks to the detriment of lonely or elderly people. The criminals on duty throw coins on the ground inviting the victims to pick them up distract them and steal their bags left in the car or still hanging from the shopping cart. Once the theft has been carried out, the perpetrators they use credit cards before they are blocked.
The investigation, coordinated by the Cremona prosecutor’s office, started from the complaint presented by an elderly woman for a theft in a city supermarket using the coin technique. From there, complex and long observation and shadowing services began by the Anti-Robbery Section of the Mobile of Cremona, an activity which made it possible to acquire elements against a group of people of South American origin with specific backgrounds. In May last year, after a car chase started in Cremona and ended in Bresciathe 30-year-old Peruvian was arrested in flagrante delicto together with a 20-year-old woman on charges of aggravated theft, resistance, injury to a public official and aggravated damage.
The Fiat Tipo in which the couple was travelling, together with another person, had made the investigators suspicious. The car had been spotted near the Cremona hospital car park and in the car parks of four different supermarkets, probably looking for the right opportunity to carry out thefts.
Always kept monitored, the car stopped near the Famila Superstore in Manerbio, with the three approaching a woman who was putting the shopping in the trunk. At a certain point one of the occupants got out of the car, put on a jacket and threw some coins near her lady, warning her that she had lost some money with the clear intent of distracting her. When the woman bent down to collect the coins, one of the criminals signaled to an accomplice who had stolen the purse placed on the passenger seat. Then the three fled at high speed towards Brescia, followed by the Mobile car which had ordered them to stop several times.
The fugitives, however, had made no sign of slowing down, on the contrary, they had increased their speed crazily, moving in such a way as to prevent any attempt by the investigators to approach them, creating high dangers for all road traffic. In the end the police managed to pull alongside the Fiat Tipo, but the driver rammed the vehicle on the right side, trying to throw them off the road. The chase continued for a few kilometres, until, near Cadignano, a hamlet of Verolanuova, the criminals had turned onto a closed road and at that point they stopped the car and then attempted to escape on foot. The driver managed to get away, while the other two, the Peruvian couple, were chased and stopped.
The investigation activity focused in particular on theanalysis of the images of the video surveillance systems and of the electronic traces left by the suspectswho are considered the alleged ones perpetrators of 35 episodes of crimes against property committed in various areas of northern Italy.
Against the 30-year-old Peruvian, with numerous specific precedents behind him and without a fixed address in Italy, Mobile carried out the measure of precautionary custody in prison ordered by the investigating judge. For the prosecution, the man is considered the leader of the gang and the one who, in collaboration with other accomplices, would have carried out around fifteen thefts of this kind in Cremona and its province.
Sara Pizzorni
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