Dozens of meticulously planned robberies on a remote island; all inhabitants are potential suspects. In an investigation that would be up to Agatha Christie’s detective Hercule Poirot, the three policemen on Capraia, a Tuscan island, must act carefully while searching for the culprits among the population of about 400.
The island’s mayor, Marida Bessi, told the Corriere della Sera newspaper that cracks were already beginning to appear in the united community, with friends and neighbors looking at each other with suspicion.
Most of the thefts, of houses and shops, occur during the winter, when visitors are away from the island, which is closer to Corsica than to mainland Italy and is only accessible by boat, weather permitting. In the most recent incident, thieves deactivated the CCTV camera in a tobacconist before taking € 60,000 (£ 52,000) out of the safe.
They also broke into Vice Mayor Fábio Mazzei’s house in November and ran away with a safe with money and jewelry that was hidden in some furniture. “It is a very sad thing because there is a feeling of having a thief in the family,” Mazzei told the newspaper. “They attacked on the right day, because they knew I was going to pay a visit to Pisa. They knew the house very well. “
Most of the inhabitants keep their money at home, as the island’s only bank closed last year. The fact that the square’s CCTV camera is broken is proving to be another obstacle in the investigation.
The inquiry so far has yielded many theories, but no clues, said Bessi. “The three policemen on the island are very good, they are doing everything they can,” she told Corriere. “But they should have more investigative tools, otherwise, it really is an unsolved crime story.”
Two thirds of the island’s 19 square kilometers were occupied by a penal colony until 1986 and the inhabitants lived in peace until the recent robberies. The population increases to about 4,000 during the summer.
“The risk now is that the sense of community that we have always had will be undermined,” said Bessi.