There are hundreds (if not thousands) of films and series about great money heists, from ironic ones to more serious and dramatic adventures, involving gangs of crazy, evil and good-looking thieves with grand ideas and perfect plans. It is instead more unusual to see a great cashmere heist, but it happened last week in Italy.
On the night between 11 and 12 November thieves broke down the gates of the Sillavengo-based (province of Novara) warehouse of cashmere clothing manufacturer Loro Piana. The thieves, comprising six people wearing hoods and gloves, placed two heavy vehicles at the entrance and exit of the town and, after having isolated it, they used two more to break into the warehouse of the company from which they stole eight cartons full of garments in just a few minutes.
After an alarm at the factory went off, a chase with the carabinieri started, but the gang ran away shooting and throwing nails to punch the wheels of the cars (a technique used by bank robbers usually) and also a fire extinguisher. Eventually, the pursuers gave up and the pursued ended up against a road barrier and escaped through the fields (they are still sought after at the time of writing this post). Four boxes of sweaters were retrieved from the van that crashed, but the other vehicle managed to escape.
The authorities were surprised by the detailed plan à la Diabolik that seemed long-thought-out (the vans used to block the roads were stolen a few weeks earlier in Lombardy, around the Milan area) organised by professional thieves. The damage estimate for Loro Piana has yet to be quantified, but from the videos of the company's surveillance cameras the carabinieri hope to be able to trace useful clues to discover the identity of the robbers.
Yet, maybe such a rocambolesque heist is not surprising: in an age in which money has dematerialized and many have invested in cryptocurrencies, maybe even thieves are looking for something more tangible and luxurious to sell on the black market.
In the meantime, the media described the robbery as "cinematic". Who knows maybe one day we will have a film entitled "The Great Cashmere Heist", after all, luxury criminals are definitely trending, considering that Lady Gaga is starring as Patrizia Reggiani, Maurizio Gucci's black widow, in Ridley Scott's much-awaited "House of Gucci".
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