Bizarre Crimes and Unexpected Discoveries
The Fashionable Thieves of Rome
Tommaso Bonardi, 78, and Vittorio Laudani, 70, are a pair of experienced thieves. Last weekend, they attempted to steal from a luxury fashion shop in Rome.
They entered the shop in the middle of the night wearing smart suits. At 4:00 a.m., they were putting clothes and accessories worth $100,000 into a bag when the police arrived. However, the criminals didn't run away; they stood completely still and pretended to be part of the fashion display. The police looked for them but didn't see them. Then, one of them moved. The police arrested them immediately—and not for the first time!
The Mystery of the Antarctic Water
Police in Devon, UK, had a difficult case to investigate last week: a work of art disappeared at a literary festival. The work of art was a bottle of water.
It was special because the water came from melted Antarctic ice. An American artist called Wayne Hill brought back two liters of the special water and created a bottle for it. The work represented the problem of global warming. It had a value of over $42,000, so Hill wasn't very happy about its disappearance. Did an art thief take it? Or maybe somebody came across the bottle, thought it was rubbish, and threw it in the bin? Or was somebody just very thirsty? The police looked into the case, but no evidence turned up.
An Unexpected Bank Discovery
Banks use complicated systems to stop bank robbers, so what happened last weekend at a bank in Easingwold was very surprising.
It was Saturday lunchtime. British banks don't usually open on Saturday afternoons. Daniel and Alison Pettigrew were outside their local bank with Oliver, their 5-year-old son. Oliver disappeared for a minute. When he came back, he said: “Dad, the bank's open.”
Daniel didn't believe his son at first, but he found out it was true. The door was open! Nobody was inside, but they saw computers and other items, all unprotected. Daniel called 999 and waited for the police to arrive. The bank worked out that there was a problem with the door and sent somebody to lock it. They thanked Oliver for doing the right thing and opened an account for him.