(Newser)
“It’s like ‘you have a thief in your family,'” says the deputy mayor of the small Italian island of Capraia. As the guardian reports, refers to dozens of thefts on the island during the winter, when only about 400 people live there. Unfortunately, the small population also applies to the police department, which has a large total of three officers. Crimes seem to be well planned. In the most recent, the thieves deactivated a security camera in a tobacco store and took more than $ 70,000 out of the safe. In another job – maybe one inside – they broke into the house of Deputy Mayor Fabio Mazzei and stole his safe, along with hidden jewelry. “They hit the right day because they knew I was going to Pisa for a visit,” he told a local newspaper. “They knew the house very well.”
The island’s population usually multiplies during the summer tourist season, but in this case the thieves seem to have overturned the usual playing card, chasing locals instead of visitors. One factor: the island’s only bank closed last year, forcing people to keep their money at home. Capraia is one of the seven islands that make up the Tuscan archipelago, he notes New York Times, which last year (in pre-pandemic days) sang the praises of a 16th-century fort restored on the island as a holiday rental. The island is actually closer to the French island of Corsica than the Italian mainland and is only accessible by boat. Mayor Mardi Bessi says the island’s three officers are doing their best. “The risk now is that the sense of community we have always had will be damaged,” says the mayor. (Read more stories about Italy.)