VENICE – “Two of them attacked me, throwing me to the ground and kicking me to take my wallet. Luckily they didn’t hurt me, but what if there had been a girl or an old man in my place?” Alessandro B. is a 23-year-old Venetian taxi driver who operates his boat throughout the city. On Monday evening he was attacked and robbed by two people, presumably Eastern Europeans, who also beat him for no apparent reason, since the young man didn’t put up any resistance.
INSIGHTS
THE BEATING
“I was going home, it must have been 11pm,” Alessandro says. “I live near the Frari, I had practically arrived. I saw these two thugs coming towards me, dressed in dark clothes, who I didn’t like even from a distance, in fact I said to myself “let’s hope for the best”. Unfortunately, it didn’t go well.” The attack was sudden and violent: Alessandro was thrown against the wall and then pinned to the ground. “They lunged at me shouting “Give me your money!”, “Give me the money”, with an accent that could have been Eastern European. Without me being able to react, one of the two slammed me against the wall and then on the ground, while the other held my head still with his knee. The other, the one who spoke to me, kicked me and took my wallet from my pocket, with 150 euros inside, then a clutch bag with the credit cards, which I managed to block immediately, my belt and my phone.” Alessandro doesn’t even try to react, thinking of saving his life rather than being a hero: “I thought it was better to give them what they wanted and take a few kicks rather than a stab. They didn’t seem armed to me, it all happened so quickly that I didn’t even get a good look at their faces, maybe one of them had something in his hand. I only thought about saving myself, I was also angry because it really happened just a stone’s throw from home”. Alessandro, fortunately, didn’t suffer any serious injuries but is still very shaken. “When I got home I immediately called the police who advised me to go to the hospital but, honestly, I was so full of adrenaline that I didn’t even feel pain. The next day I had a bit of pain in my side but I don’t even have any marks, I must be made of rubber”, he jokes. Alessandro managed to block the credit cards but his hopes of seeing his cell phone, an iPhone 14, are slim to the bone: “I tracked it with the appropriate app and discovered that the thieves spent the night in a campsite in Marghera. The next day, however, they were already in Berlin.”