Their work “shift” began very early, with the first light of day. They put on their work overalls, those of the municipal waste collection service, and together they reached the center of Naples on a scooter.
As work tools, however, they did not carry the traditional broom and dustpan, but a small blank-firing pistol without a red cap.
And it wasn't used for self-defense but to rob people leaving for work in the early morning.
Reports and complaints of robberies committed by two people dressed as street cleaners have arrived many. The Carabinieri of the Provincial Command of Naples have thus collected all the necessary information and planned observation and shadowing services.
Deployed for hours in various points of the city centre, by car and on foot, in the “Pignasecca”, in the “Cavone” and in the Spanish Quarters, the soldiers of the Centro Company identified two suspicious people riding a large scooter.
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They were wearing helmets and both were dressed in the traditional work overalls of the Naples waste management, complete with logo, reflective bands and cap. The carabinieri followed them until they met them on Salita Pontecorvo, in the heart of the Avvocata neighborhood.
They cut him off and ordered him to stop. The driver fled while the passenger, Angelo Belladonna, a 41-year-old from the Borgoloreto neighborhood already known to the police, was stopped.
In his pocket he was hiding a pistol, small, silver, without a red cap and with the handle wrapped in electrical tape. He had a lot of money with him, about 300 euros.
He was then taken to the barracks and it was there that the carabinieri discovered that, shortly before, a Neapolitan taxi driver had been robbed by two people whose description perfectly matched the two fake street cleaners.
60 euros had been taken from him, money that he would have used to give change to customers that day.
Belladonna, in addition to the money and the gun, had with him several cell phones and one of these - the military found - turned out to be the property of a bartender in the center, who had also been robbed shortly before by two armed street cleaners.
The 41-year-old was thus arrested for aggravated robbery and receiving stolen goods: the vehicle in which he was travelling with his accomplice, in fact, was found to be the object of a theft committed on 19 May.
Investigations continue to identify the second robber and to verify whether the dozens of robberies committed in this period with the same modus operandi can be attributed to the two "street cleaners".
Article published on May 24, 2021 - 06:57 pm
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