The promptness of spirit and the decisive manner of the owner made it possible to foil a robbery against the ‘Santarpia’ newsagent-tobacconist’s, located in Massa Lombarda at number 115 in the central Corso Vittorio Veneto. The incident, which the police are investigating, took place the other afternoon. This is told by Nicola Santarpia, owner of the business for 16 years: “It was around 3.30 pm when an individual entered the shop, in which there were no customers, who, holding a knife with a fifteen-centimeter blade, he ordered to hand over the proceeds to him “. The robber, described by the owner as a young man, very slender and tall 1 and 65, had his face distorted by a scarf worn as a balaclava and a mask. “Barely – Santarpia comments – you could see the eyes. Honestly I was not afraid, even if the vision of that knife obviously did not bode well. At that point I pretended to comply with his request and I headed behind the counter , grabbing a baseball bat, at the sight of which the man ran away. I tried to chase him, but he lost track of himself. ” The phone call from the owner to the police was immediate. A steering wheel from the Lugo police station intervened on the spot, in addition to the carabinieri. The researches of the young man were concentrated in particular in the town, also extending to the neighboring localities. The testimony of a lady who, near the tobacconist’s, would have noticed shortly before the young man who had his face still uncovered but was already holding the knife, and the images of the cameras in the near the town hall and at the height of other commercial activities in the area. It is not the first time that Nicola Santarpia’s newsstand-tobacconist has been targeted. Four years two criminals attempted a robbery which, as in the case of Wednesday, did not go to sign due to the prompt reaction of the owner himself. Thugs who were arrested shortly thereafter.
Luigi Scardovi
