Naples - An act that combines cowardice and cruelty. A 67-year-old man, Antonio Ferrigno, already known to law enforcement and a resident of the Sanità district, was arrested by Carabinieri in Vomero for a snatch theft that shook the neighborhood.
The victim, an 83-year-old pensioner, was deprived not only of her monthly pension, but also of her dignity, in a morning that turned into a nightmare.
The ambush and the surreal escape
The scene unfolded shortly after the elderly woman had collected her belongings from the post office. She had with her a shopping cart, a common object for people her age, containing the bag containing the money she had just collected and a few purchases.
But Ferrigno had his eye on her. He had targeted her, knowing that the bag contained the fruit of sacrifice.
The attack took place on Via Paesiello in Vomero, near the Collana Stadium. The 67-year-old, riding his scooter, didn't just make a quick exit. In an act of violence and disregard for danger, he grabbed the entire shopping cart.
The scooter sped off, dragging the trailer across the asphalt in a noisy and surreal stampede, leaving the 83-year-old terrified on the sidewalk. Fortunately, she didn't fall and was physically unharmed, though deeply shaken.
A month's money "burned" in a few hours
The emergency number 112 was immediately called. The elderly woman provided a precise description to the Carabinieri at the Vomero station and the operational unit, but it was one detail that gave the thief away: that peculiar escape while dragging a cart. The officers examined surveillance cameras in the area, quickly reconstructing the fugitive's route.
The 67-year-old was arrested a few hours later in Piazza Totò. The outcome of the affair is, if possible, even more bitter and desolate. Ferrigno had only a fraction of the loot on him.
The rest? Pulverized. The man admitted bluntly that he had squandered almost the entirety of the elderly woman's pension at a betting shop.
It is here that the gravity of the gesture takes on an even more odious contour: a month's sustenance of an 83-year-old woman, a sum hard-earned and necessary for living, was "burned" in a few hours by the fever of gambling.
The Carabinieri recovered the victim's trolley and documents. Antonio Ferrigno, who paradoxically is almost old enough to be a pensioner himself, was sent to prison awaiting trial.
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