We were driving on Viale Ergiseto Bezzi in Milan headed to our BnB accommodations. A pedestrian called out that we had a flat tire. Looking in the side view mirror, I saw that our right rear tire was, indeed, flat. We drove slowly ahead and turned onto a quieter street to change the tire. Of course, we assumed we had run over a nail. Wrong! We learned much later that someone had come alongside us in the stop and go traffic and stabbed through the sidewall with a knife. A man on a motor bike followed us, and he and two others offered to help. We unloaded two backpacks and placed them on the front seat of the car to get to the spare tire. Their real purpose was to help themselves to our two bags and my purse while we were occupied at the rear of the car. They vanished on their motor bikes along with most of our belongings. It took less than a minute, and it put a big crimp in the rest of our vacation.
What to do to stymie this gang of thieves? Don’t trust anyone right away. Delay them. Don’t open the trunk immediately. Don’t be in a rush. If they can’t get what they want quickly, they will probably move on to another target
Posted by
Vernon, Canada
32392 posts
Sorry to hear that you were victimized, and I can certainly understand why it put a damper on the rest of your holiday.
That's a well known scam and it occurs in other places besides Milan. Based on reports that I've heard, sometimes the tire is indeed flat and sometime that's just a ruse to get the driver to stop. It's basically a distraction scam, somewhat like the classic bird cr@p on clothing. While the "mark" is dealing with the problem that the thieves created, the thieves clean them out.
Unfortunately there are scammers all over the world, including here. There are "wanted" posters in different places around my small city warning about a woman that presents herself as a "cleaning service". She cleans alright, including cleaning out all the owner's valuables.