A father leaves his 10 and 15 year old daughters alone: he tells them to wait for him to buy a diving mask. They find him after an hour, hundreds of meters from the girls, drunk. Reported by the Carabinieri
The rush at the boarding gates, hundreds of people waiting in disarray to reach the islands on ferries departing from Molo Beverello. And among the crowd, a father with his two little girls, aged 10 and 15.
They are Venetians, on holiday in Naples for Ferragosto and at that moment ready to reach the beaches of Ischia. It's hot but the ship is on time. There's no time to cool off at the bar. Then the dad changes his mind and thinks of popping over to the counter of the nearby kiosk for a refreshing drink. Nothing different from a thousand other stories up to this point.
The scenario changes when the man asks his daughters not to move from the bar. To stay still: he would be back in a few seconds, after buying a diving mask. The girls are composed, obey their father and remain still watching the man walk away.
The first 5 minutes pass, then 15. The ferry is about to leave. The 15-year-old knows it and reassures her little sister. She tries to call her father on his cell phone: “I’m coming, wait for me.” She calls back after another 10 minutes, same answer. Another 30 minutes pass, an hour in all but the father is gone.
They don’t move anyway, fearing that by moving from there they could completely lose sight of each other in the crowd of boarders. Other people understand that those two little girls are worried. They come closer and ask where their parents are. “Dad will be here soon.” A group of people forms around them, the ferry leaves and the father has disappeared.
Someone calls 112 and the Carabinieri of the Centro company arrive on the scene. They talk to the girls and ask them for a description of their father. The eldest is very precise and in a few minutes they manage to track him down. He is hanging around the docks of the port, hundreds of meters away from his daughters, evidently drunk. He is muttering confused phrases.
They then track down the mother and, on her instructions, entrust the girls to an acquaintance in Naples. The man was reported for child abandonment.
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