«We had been talking all afternoon, he told me that he was a dealer in agricultural machinery, he pretended to have an appointment with his Ukrainian wife and asked me if I sold chickens. He attacked me while I was preparing a mousetrap, I bent down and he hit me on the back of the head, it was like lightning.” Mario Piccoli, 73 years olda retired accountant, remembers very well the terrible attack he suffered in December 2022 in his home, in Onigo di Pederobba, by a stranger to whom he had opened the door of his house.
The elderly man surprised from behind
In recent days, investigations by the Carabinieri of the Company and the Montebelluna radio mobile unit, coordinated by the public prosecutor Gabriella Cama, led to the identification of the bandit, a 57-year-old from Trento who is currently in prison for crimes relating to the possession of weapons. A few days ago the man was notified of the order from the investigating judge of the Treviso court attributing responsibility to him for the episode in the Treviso area, perhaps not an isolated case. The 57-year-old lured Mario Piccoli by showing up at his home to ask him for directions but ended up taking advantage of the availability of the elderly man who had welcomed him, offering him a drink. The pensioner was caught from behind and hit violently and repeatedly in the back of the head with an iron tube. Then the 57-year-old had him hooded, threatened with death (“Give me all the money you have”) with an iron billhook and then immobilized him, tying his wrists to a shelf at the back of the kitchen.
Parma’s Ris analysis
The robber took the money that the 73-year-old had in his wallet, about 900 euros, and then ran away. The elderly man, after freeing himself from the bonds with which he had been tied, raised the alarm to a friend and his brother who immediately alerted the police. At the time, the pensioner had been hospitalized for three days: he had suffered injuries with a prognosis of about 40 days. The perpetrator of the robbery was caught by some biological traces, in particular a cigarette butt and a glass with which he had been drinking. It is thanks to the analysis of the Parma RIS on these findings and the telephone records that it was possible to identify with certainty the perpetrator of the robbery. For Mario Piccoli the end of a nightmare that lasted for almost two years.
