Dubbed “acrobatic thieves,” a gang of four was arrested in Milan after allegedly monitoring the movements of celebrities and influencers in the city on Instagram before scaling their apartment buildings and stealing their homes.
Inter Milan football player Achraf Hakimi, TV presenter Diletta Leotta and influencer Eleonora Incardona are among the victims.
The gang reportedly used Instagram to spy on their targets meticulously, reconstructing their movements, taking a look inside their homes and determining the type of windows they had. The nickname alludes to his skill and agility in climbing the sides of buildings.
The men, aged between 17 and 44, would dress elegantly to blend into their target’s upscale neighborhoods. CCTV footage of a robbery shows a gang member watching as another man climbs into a building and enters through the window of a first-floor apartment.
“He put on latex gloves and quickly climbed up a pole and towards a window on the first floor, forced it to open and entered the house,” said Milan prosecutor Francesca Crupi.
The thief then opened the front door of the house to the other two accomplices, and together they stuffed their loot into a suitcase owned by the victim before fleeing.
Police said the series of thefts began in June last year, when € 150,000 (£ 130,000) of goods, including jewelry, designer handbags and Rolex watches, were stolen from a home in Leotta.
The gang is also suspected of being behind the theft of several watches belonging to Hakimi, who moved from Borussia Dortmund to Inter Milan in September and lived in temporary accommodation at the time of the theft in November.
The gang also reportedly stole nine designer bags and clothing items from Incardona’s house, which has nearly 500,000 followers on Instagram in December. The police managed to recover most of the loot.
In another audacious robbery in Milan in November, a gang of armed robbers broke into a bank crawling through the sewer before stealing several safes and fleeing the same way.
The thieves fought with the bank manager and held him and another employee hostage during the theft.