Bari - A former Carabiniere used his old-fashioned instincts to foil a scam targeting his 82-year-old wife. The incident occurred in Palese, a hamlet of Bari, where an 18-year-old from Campania attempted to defraud the elderly woman by posing as her nephew in dire straits.
It all started with a phone call to the pensioner. The young man, in a convincing voice, pretended to be one of the woman's nephews, claiming he was at the police station for unpaid bills and urgently needed €3.000—in cash and jewelry—to avoid worse trouble.
The worried elderly woman began searching for money in her house, managing to collect around €1.000. But what the scammer couldn't have known was that the eighty-two-year-old's husband, a retired Carabiniere, was listening in on the conversation and wasn't fooled.
The man, immediately recognizing the classic schemes of a scam targeting the elderly, promptly alerted 112.
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The patrol cars arrived at the couple's home within minutes. As soon as he got out of the car, an officer noticed a young man nearby who, upon seeing the patrol, suddenly fled.
The police managed to apprehend the fugitive after a brief chase. Upon searching him, they found the cell phone used to make the fraudulent call to the pensioner.
The young man, an eighteen-year-old from Campania, was arrested for attempted aggravated fraud—a particularly serious crime when committed against the elderly—and taken to prison pending trial.
The episode demonstrates how experience and quick wit can foil even the most carefully planned scams, and confirms the dangers of a phenomenon—scams targeting the elderly—that continues to claim victims throughout Italy, exploiting grandparents' affection and concern for their grandchildren.
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