Dozens Arrested For Baggage Theft In Italy

by Libby Zay on

Having an airline lose a piece of luggage is a relatively common – albeit frustrating – part of travel. But when just a few items repeatedly go missing out of a bags, there is a major call for concern. CNN is reporting that’s just what has allegedly been happening over and over again with baggage handlers working with Italian airline Alitalia, leading to dozens of arrests last Friday.

According to the news outlet, police made 49 arrests at Rome’s Fiumicino airport, plus another 37 at airports in Bari, Bologna, Milan Linate, Naples, Palermo and Verona. The arrests came after an 18-month investigation spurred by reports of missing items at the airport of the Italian city of Lamezia Terme. Police maintain the alleged thefts happened during the loading and unloading of baggage onto aircraft, and that they have surveillance footage of thefts taking place. During the investigation, Alitalia security personnel worked with police to catch the supposed thieves.

Our only advice to you, dear travelers, is to either leave valuables at home or keep them with you in the cabin whenever possible (so long as these items follow security rules, of course). You just never know what could happen.

[Photo credit: Flickr user sun dazed]

Heading to Palermo, Italy? Bring an air freshener!

by Scott Carmichael on

This is not exactly a “photo of the day“, but it is still an impressive destination photo, albeit a smelly one…

The garbage men in the Sicilian capital of Palermo are on strike – and the photo above shows the results of just one week of no garbage pickup. The situation is starting to look a lot like the mess in Naples last year.

Unfortunately for the residents of Palermo, the weather is nice and warm, so the stench is unbearable. And to make matters worse, the fire department is constantly busy putting out fires popping up in the massive piles of garbage.

Yuck.

Mafia-free shopping in Palermo

by Anna Brones on

“Why did you go to the police? Why didn’t you come to me first?” the memorable line was said by one of Hollywood’s most famous Mafia men: Don Corleone of The Godfather. But in some places, people really do skip over the police and head directly to the boss. Take Palermo, Italy where shopkeepers have for years paid the “Pizzo;” 200 to 500 euros paid monthly to Sicily’s Costa Nostra in order to avoid pesky occurrences like smashed windows and mysterious car bombs under cars outside of shops.

That might all change with Punto Pizzofree, a new shop which promises that all products and staff are 100% Mafia-free. What can you get at a Mafia-free store? Everything from marmalade to produce grown on farms seized from jailed Mafia bosses. But Mafia-free Palermo businesses can’t take a rest just yet; one member of Adiopizzo, an organization that supports shops who don’t pay up the Pizzo, lost £3 million in goods when mobsters burned down his warehouse.

[Via World Hum]