Naples, the culprit always returns to the scene of the crime: they rob a 21-year-old at the ATM and are arrested in the same square.

Naples – An old literary and cinematic cliché says that the guilty always returns to the scene of the crime. In the heart of Naples' historic center, this maxim has become reality, landing two young robbers, betrayed by a mixture of brazenness and naivety, straight in jail.

Carabinieri officers from the Naples Central unit have arrested two Tunisian men, aged 19 and 20, on suspicion of aggravated robbery. Both men were already known to law enforcement.

The dawn raid and the forced withdrawal

The events occurred at five in the morning on September 24th. The scene of the attack was Piazza del Gesù, one of the city's nightlife hotspots.

According to investigators' reconstruction, the two arrested men, aided by a third accomplice, surrounded a twenty-one-year-old. At knifepoint, they escorted him to an ATM, forcing him to withdraw €300 in cash. After grabbing the money, the group quickly fled into the surrounding alleys, leaving the victim shaken but unharmed.

The chance meeting and the call to 112

The incident seemed destined to fade into obscurity, given that the boy hadn't yet gone to the police station to file a formal complaint. The breakthrough, however, came twenty-four hours later.

Returning to the same square, the twenty-one-year-old's eyes widened: two of the three attackers were there, just a few meters away, calm as if nothing had happened. Keeping his cool, the young man dialed 112 and provided the Carabinieri with their exact location and descriptions.

The intervention of the military and the hunt for the accomplice

The Carabinieri intervened promptly, arresting the two suspects before they realized they had been discovered.

The prosecution was reinforced by the investigative work: the meticulous analysis of footage from the square's video surveillance systems confirmed the dynamics of the raid and the couple's full involvement.
The two twenty-year-olds were taken to prison and placed at the disposal of the Neapolitan judicial authorities. Investigations are now ongoing to identify the third accomplice who fled after the robbery.