Matera – The phone rings like a snake in the lost paradise of an apartment on Via Gattini, and a 96-year-old grandmother, her trembling hands still smelling of Sunday sauce, answers with the voice of someone who has lived through two world wars.
"Mom, it's me, your son... they arrested me, I need money right now to get out." The Neapolitan accent, disguised as a desperate sob, does the rest: the door opens, a stranger enters like a shadow, grabs the wedding ring—that gold band that sealed 70 years of marriage—and vanishes with 800 euros in his pocket.
A few blocks away, in another nest of faded memories, a 91-year-old woman receives another spell: "Ma'am, I'm from the agency, I have to photograph the jewelry for the overdue bills, otherwise they'll take everything off." Click, flash, and off you go: necklaces, rings, another €800 loot.
This isn't a film noir script; it's the crude routine of elderly scams, that odious system that claims nearly 43.000 victims in Italy every year, an epidemic of greed that by 2025 has already led the police to dismantle multi-million euro networks, with 71% of scams occurring via telephone.
The perpetrators? Two Neapolitans, a 22-year-old and a 39-year-old with a track record of being repeat offenders—priorities for similar heinous acts—who this afternoon transformed Matera, the City of Stones, into a Hollywood-style chase scene.
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"They're running away with grandma's gold!" the cry echoes back to the operations center. A frantic chase ensues on Highway 99, toward Altamura: sirens wailing, tires screeching on the asphalt slicked by autumn rain, an unmarked car that stops them at zero kilometers.
Arrested, handcuffed, and searched: all the jewelry was recovered—including that wedding ring that glowed like a reproach—and €1.600 in cash, life savings scraped together from starvation pensions. To add to the horror, that same morning, a third attempt on another elderly woman was narrowly foiled.
The two ended up in prison on the orders of the investigating judge – aggravated and repeated fraud, a charge that promises a long prison sentence. This is not an isolated case: in 2025, scams targeting people over 65 exploded, with the 65-70 age group the preferred target for fraud involving "false financial statements" or fake emergencies, a phenomenon that is expected to grow 15% compared to 2024, according to Eurispes reports.
And the numbers cry out for vengeance: since the beginning of the year, approximately 200 arrests and 3.000 reports for this bloodbath, but the underground economy is abysmal, with psychological damage that pushes the elderly into isolation, depression, and a veil of paranoia around every phone call.
The two arrested, with that age gap that smacks of apprentice and master of evil, are perhaps part of a larger cell: the Prosecutor's Office's investigation will now delve into phone records and dormant accomplices.
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11 September 2025 - 19:38
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