Catania: she steals from 4 shops in the shopping centre but is discovered and arrested by the Carabinieri.

An afternoon of shopping at “zero cost”, this was the goal of a 56-year-old woman from Catania, with a criminal record, who the other day was arrested by the Carabinieri of the Catania Radiomobile Unit for “aggravated theft”.
In particular, the woman went to a shopping centre on the outskirts of the Etna capital, with a rigid plastic bag under her arm, and began to wander around the gallery looking at the shop windows, until she entered an underwear shop.

Here, after having chosen 2 tank tops and a pair of trousers, taking advantage of a moment in which the shop was particularly crowded and therefore the attention of the shop assistants was focused on the various customers who were making purchases at that moment, she skillfully removed the anti-shoplifting devices with a pair of scissors and hid them in her bag.
Convinced that the first robbery had been successful, she headed to another women's clothing store, where she stole a T-shirt using the same method.

Then it was the turn of an accessories shop, from which she managed to steal a backpack, and finally a store on the first floor where, having chosen a vest, with the excuse of trying it on, she hid in the dressing rooms and cut off the anti-theft plate using wire cutters.
With her loot hidden in the hard envelope, the 56-year-old continued her “theft tour”, but she was unaware that the video surveillance system was filming her and that the shopkeepers had already noticed the shortages and had alerted the Carabinieri.

Convinced that she had succeeded in her intent, the woman attempted to reach the exit but found herself facing two patrols of the Mobile Radio Unit, who, having received a detailed description of the thief, waited for her to exit the shopping centre.

The Carabinieri, positioned in front of the exits of the shopping center, carried out a discreet filtering of the customers, carefully observing the people who were leaving with the intent of identifying the suspect. After a few minutes of waiting, they recognized the criminal who, at the sight of the Carabinieri, initially tried to change direction, but was immediately stopped.

The investigators, therefore, noticing the woman's obvious embarrassment and nervousness, decided to search her bag, inside which they actually recovered all the stolen clothing items and backpack. In the meantime, the other team reconstructed all the thief's moves, through monitoring the video surveillance system, from the moment of entering the warehouse, to the moment of the careful selection of the objects to steal and the removal of the anti-shoplifting label, up to the subsequent escape attempt, which unfortunately went wrong for her.
All the stolen goods, which corresponded to a total of approximately €200,00 worth of products, were returned to the store managers, who thanked the crews for their prompt intervention.

The thief was arrested for "aggravated theft" and placed at the disposal of the Judicial Authority who validated the arrest and ordered her to be placed under house arrest.