Two males, 38 and 43, have been detained by the Italian police on suspicion of robbing a British professor, 56, in Milan of a £13,000 Rolex watch while holding him at gunpoint.
After following the victim from a store via Vincenzo Monti, the crooks stole the pricey Rolex Oyster Perpetual watch.
The victim was observed by the criminals as they fled on an electric scooter along the route Tamburini, as captured on surveillance video.
The victim was followed inside the store, which is close to the city center, according to the published CCTV video.
The British professor was eventually located by the robbers in a residence on the way to Tamburini.
One thief seems to get off the electric scooter as it stops.
The victim was then forced to surrender the watch when the thief brandished a revolver.
The electric scooter is then observed being used by the robbers to flee on security video.
Later, using the scooter’s license plate that was captured on CCTV, police were able to locate it.
Police were able to identify a 43-year-old man who had just been released from jail after serving a lengthy sentence for similar offenses according to the victim’s description.
Police discovered the scooter in Milan’s Niguarda neighborhood, where a relative of the 43-year-old man resides, a few days after the theft on Thursday, September 22, when it was reported to them.
Police were organized by agents to pursue and halt the guys entering through Sant Sofia.
It was discovered that the males were in possession of an illegal Browning semi-automatic handgun, which was likely the same weapon used in the heist.
Only this past August, a British traveler to Milan was robbed of a £9,000 Rolex watch after being “lured into a dance by three lads” in the city’s well-known Porta Nuova nightlife district.
This came after news broke in July that yet another burglar had stolen a £59,000 watch from the heart of the city.
The 58-year-old victim’s Richard Mille watch was taken at the Lombardy capital’s Corso Venezia.
For British visitors, Milan is a popular vacation spot, yet the city is rife with pickpockets, and foreigners often fall victim to con artists.
According to Statistica, the city had Italy’s highest rate of theft in 2020, with over 2.2k occurrences per 100,000 residents.
Milan experiences more store burglaries and thefts than other Italian regions.
The worst provinces for theft, with almost 6,000 incidents recorded, were Bologna and Rimini.