Prato – Robbery foiled in the historic center on Tuesday afternoon, when a 40-year-old Italian, with a history of crimes against the person, tried to steal goods from a grocery store in Via Muzzi. The timely intervention of the State Police was decisive, as they caught the culprit red-handed and then arrested him for the crime of attempted aggravated robbery. The man was subsequently taken to the «La Dogaia» prison. It all started at 4pm, when the attention of the officers on duty in Piazza del Duomo was called by a shopkeeper who reported the presence of several people in via Muzzi who were running and shouting. The police promptly rushed to check what was happening, noticing that a man had been surrounded: he was the one who had tried to rob a business located in that very street. The testimonies of those present and the images from the video surveillance cameras made it possible to reconstruct what happened. The robber, who arrived near the business on a scooter, entered the premises with his helmet still on his head. Then, using a cooler bag that he had with him, he took possession of various goods, with the intention of taking them away without paying. The owner of the business ordered him to do so, trying to block him near the exit. The man refused and pushed the woman and her daughter to the ground, who in the meantime had arrived to help her mother. Whereupon the robber was surrounded by a group of people and was arrested by the officers. The – providential – intervention of the police is part of the intensification of the prevention activity of crimes linked to widespread crime phenomena, implemented at the request of the Police Commissioner with particular attention to the historic city centre.
Francesco Bocchini
