ANCONA He pretends to be a patient at the Torrette hospital and steals from the lockers reserved for nurses. It is on charges of aggravated theft that yesterday judge Pietro Renna sentenced a 48-year-old from Ancona, currently in prison for another reason, to eight months in prison. The facts date back to 6 and 7 August 2020, when healthcare personnel were facing the pandemic emergency and the first tranche of anti-Covid vaccinations.
The investigations
What tightened the circle around the man was, above all, a detail, very difficult to miss in that period burdened by the pandemic: the 48-year-old wandered around the hospital without a mask or wore it lowered. A self-trick that had allowed the medical staff to be able to provide a detailed description of the thief to the police officers, to whom a complaint was then filed. The furtive episodes were reconstructed during the trial. The various healthcare workers who had interfaced with the 48-year-old gradually took to the witness stand. According to what emerged, the man had pretended to be a patient from the Torrette regional hospital: once the emergency room had taken care of him, he had been sent to the specialist departments to carry out an ultrasound. At least this was the excuse the scoundrel would have given.
The blitzes
The fact is that on August 6th four years ago he reviewed the Orthopedics and Anesthesia and Intensive Care departments. In the first case he had tried to withdraw 15 euros from the nurses’ lockers. The theft had failed, only because an employee – having seen the raid – had started chasing the thief, who had abandoned the money during the escape. He then moved to intensive care, where he took 50 euros from the bag that a healthcare worker had left in a room. The following day, the accused went to the hospital for the second furtive raid, but changed the targeted department.
The 48-year-old, according to the prosecution reconstruction, had managed to get his hands on 70 euros, money taken from the lockers of the Hematology department. It was the nursing staff who raised the alarm, starting the police investigation. It was precisely the detail of the lowered mask that allowed the department operators to provide an identikit of the petty thief. The accused, who has always rejected any objection, was defended by the lawyer Germana Riso.
