ACIREALE (CATANIA) – He pretended to be a policeman and asked motorists stopped at traffic lights for documents. The strange story was discovered by the real soldiers of the Acireale Army, who reported a 55-year-old local man. Some citizens telephoned the police station to report that, while they were stopped at the traffic lights on Viale Cristoforo Colombo, they had been approached by a man on board a scooter, who, after showing off a metal plaque depicting the flame symbol of the Army, had ordered them to produce their documents
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Motorists were clearly perplexed by the strange modus operandi of the fake policeman, who was staging clumsy police checks, alone, without uniform and on board a private motorbike, creating traffic at the intersection for a few minutes. Shortly after, the man got back on his scooter and drove away. Thanks to the footage from the video surveillance cameras present in the town, in less than 24 hours the police tracked down the 55-year-old, before he could carry out much more serious actions.
When the soldiers knocked on his door, the man remained silent, his head down. Once the apartment was searched, the counterfeit metal plate was recovered. In the garage, near the scooter that the man was using, the carabinieri then discovered, hidden in a box, 4 blue windbreakers of the force, now disused for several years, 3 trousers with red side stripes and 1 jacket from uniform. Investigations to understand how the man came into possession of that material are still ongoing.
