BOLZANO. Scenes from the movies, including overtaking, full-speed bends and near-miss accidents. The protagonists were four Romanians who, around 12pm yesterday, aboard a Volkswagen Golf, literally crashed through the motorway barrier at the Bolzano Sud toll booth. Thus began the maxi-chase through the streets of the capital: via Galilei, then the Virgolo tunnel, the junction towards via Mayr Nusser and capture. They were stopped just before the underpass by six patrol cars, which surprised them from different directions (one came from Ponte Loreto, the other from via Macello). The men got out of the car, in the middle of the traffic that had created in the meantime, and decided to collaborate. They were then transferred to the police headquarters, where the officers discovered the “reason” for the trip. They had left Verona, from a well-known nomad camp where they have lived for years. The next objective, studied in detail with an accomplice who was already waiting for them in the city, was Bolzano. According to what has been reconstructed, they had already targeted some villas and a series of apartments to burgle.
They were a gang specialized in thefts, all four of whom had multiple convictions for different crimes. Also for fraud: in the past, in fact, they had pretended to be volunteers from charities to help disabled children. This is how they collected money for their trips. Which didn’t always end as planned: in Venice, in fact, they were kicked out because they were found red-handed while stealing from a shop. The same measure was taken yesterday, in addition to complaints for aggravated damage and resisting a public official. The reason why they cut the toll booth barrier in two remains a mystery. When questioned, they claimed to have been chased by another car, but the police found no trace of it. After passing the toll booth, the operators monitoring the A22 cameras reported the episode to the police who began chasing the Golf. «This is a delicate intervention, after a dangerous chase, which made it possible to nip the gang’s intentions in the bud. If they had not been stopped in time, they would have created quite a few problems”, concludes Commissioner Sartori.