Page 12 - IAV Digital Magazine #559

iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine
Julia
Buckley, CNN
(CNN) — Usually it's the tourists behaving badly in Italy, but this time three men accused of crimes outside the Colosseum are locals.
The men have been arrested on suspicion of extortion after dressing up as gladiators and centurions and
demand-
ing money from tourists for their self-styled "imper- ial selfies" -- which they had asked the tourists to take.
Rome's Polizia di Stato police force announced the news on
its Facebook pag e, stating that dur- ing August and September, they received a "num- ber of complaints from foreign
tourists
who had had up to 500 euros ($516) extorted from them."
"The modus operandi was identical," they wrote. Men dressed as gladi- ators or centuri- ons would allegedly invite their tourist vic- tims to take an "imperial selfie" with them outside the Colosseum,
and
then demand money. Sometimes "vio- lence and threats" were used.
One Italian tourist was asked for 40 euros; when he said no, two of the suspects sur- rounded him, threatened to beat him up, and allegedly extorted 150 euros from them.
An Irish tourist who refused to pay up, saying they had no money, was apparently marched to a nearby ATM where they jostled them, police said. The victim with- drew 200 euros and handed it over, only for the men to demand more, and force them to extract another 50 euros.
Helped by Rome's Public Prosecutor's Office, the police identified the three men and have obtained a precautionary measure regard- ing them. Two have been placed under house arrest and one held in custody.
Investigations are still at a prelimi- nary stage.
Rome's fake glad- iators -- who are
in fact usually dressed as centu- rions (soldiers) rather than gladi- ators -- have long been a problem, with many tourists snapping photos with them blissful- ly unaware that they will be charged. It is ille- gal to make tourists pay for photos, though some seem to have not got the memo.
In January, two Romans were fined 13,500 euros when they were caught charging tourists for a photo, and their costumes were confiscated.
In 2015,
a Romanian TV crew filming the centurions was robbed when they refused to pay. Another centurion pulled up his tunic and made obscene gestures at the crew.
iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine
Rome's Fake ‘Gladiators' Arrested For Alleged Tourist Extortion