Catania: 45-Year-Old Steals Two Amplifiers From Church Then Repents and Returns Everything

The priest of the Catania church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus at the Capuchins had filed a theft report with great regret when he noticed that two amplifiers from the parish had been stolen. The friar had gone to the Carabinieri barracks in Piazza Dante, telling them that someone, taking advantage of the fact that the doors had been left open, after a religious function, to allow the air to be recycled, had removed the two large loudspeakers that allowed all the faithful to listen to the “Word”. The parish priest's statements allowed the Carabinieri to immediately start the investigations, also carried out by acquiring video surveillance footage of the area and identifying, in a short time, the scooter on which the thief had reached the church.

Although the images were not particularly sharp, The investigators identified the criminal, a 45-year-old from Catania, with a criminal record for property crimes, who had been filmed while passing in front of the building and then, probably having seen it open and empty, had decided to park and go in. After about two minutes, the cameras had filmed him as, with amplifiers in hand, he left the churchyard and, having loaded the goods onto the moped, ran away. Once the dynamics of the facts had been ascertained and the perpetrator of the crime had been identified, the military personnel reached him at home where, in the meantime, he had arrived and unloaded the "booty".

However, perhaps already in the grip of remorse, the man had not hidden the boxes, but had left them at the entrance and in fact, when the Carabinieri knocked on his door, he opened it saying: "I want to give everything back". On the basis of the evidence collected, to be verified in court, the 45-year-old was therefore reported for the theft, and the stolen goods were recovered. The thief, however, asked to be able to apologize personally to the priest who, having recovered the loudspeakers, decided to forgive him and withdraw the complaint filed.