GORGO AL MONTICANO – The Veneto of the villas built with the work and savings of a life has been a land of conquest for decades by gangs of violent robberies, even with tragic results. Never until today, however, has there been a victim as important and known throughout the world as Roberto Baggio. Moreover, the dynamics of attacks on homes has never changed, especially those isolated and located on the outskirts of urban centres, where the owners – most often elderly people – are beaten up, tied up and forced to hand over money and valuables uselessly locked in safe. Sometimes the raids yield little stuff, a few watches and some money, sometimes the loot is bigger. Frequent episodes, relegated to the internal pages of the news, sometimes also seen as a “price” to pay for the widespread wealth of these lands.
On the night of August 21, 2007, however, a Gorgo al Monticanoa small town in the province of Treviso, there was horror, with the barbaric killing of two elderly spouses, Guido Pellicciardi and Lucia Comin, who lived in the annex of a manor house that they looked after. A gang of Eastern Europeans attacked them and demanded the keys to the main building. The two refused – they didn’t even have the keys – and were beaten to death. The gang was caught and convicted – one committed suicide in prison – but the indignation and fear became more frequent from then on.
The province of Treviso is the one that has recorded the most episodes of this kind, where there is a particular concentration of single-family homes. Often the small groups inspect several nearby apartments, raiding as much as possible, without caring whether there are occupants inside or not. In December 2010 it also happened to the house of the Venetian president Luca Zaia – who was absent – and on that occasion the alarm was raised. The targets were also more particular sites, such as the “valli”, i.e. the estates on the edge of the Venice Lagoon owned by industrialists such as Stefanel and Schiavon, and then the province of Vicenza. There have been numerous operations by the police to find and defeat some gangs dedicated to this type of “business”: in general these are citizens from the Balkan countries and Eastern Europe. But there is immediately another gang ready to replace those who have “burned out”.
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