Thieves in the home of the champion Fondriest, it is the gang’s fifth attack: “It makes you want to electrify the gate”

Fifth hit by the gang of thieves at the home of the former world cycling champion, Maurizio Fondriest. It happened last Saturday, while he was away from home, in Cles, with his wife Ornella; Even her 18-year-old son wasn’t there: the only presence was the family’s Australian shepherd, Ginger. His reaction oscillates between despair and anger. «If it goes on like this I’ll take it and go live somewhere else! The idea, straight away, was to electrify the gate at 380 volts: a reaction from people who don’t feel protected and are thinking of taking justice into their own hands.”

The gang and the loot

Nothing is known about the gang, «but it is thought that they are foreigners, Eastern Europe or Maghreb – explains Fondriest -. They played it safe by gutting the safe and taking only jewellery, watches and cash. They haven’t touched the Fondriest Spada that I use for training and the computer.” The material value of the stolen goods is around 30 thousand euros but the watches, the champion says dejectedly, had an inestimable sentimental value. «My wife had given one to me when we got married and I had given one to her». Then there were the gold medals from the most important awards and a golden rose, with hand-beaten leaves, which a craftsman friend had given him.

We are not protected

Fondriest indulges in a stingy comment towards the State. «Ornella doesn’t sleep, she wakes up all the time. I hope my visibility generates a reaction and a change. Since Sunday I have continued to hear people telling me “they came to me too”. It doesn’t have to be like this! Justice must protect citizens: it cannot all be a free zone. These people know that they don’t risk anything here. I am sorry that the work of the police is undermined by laws that protect those who commit crimes. Now we will put external video surveillance: what else can we do? Go and live elsewhere? Do we do justice to ourselves? It’s not right to end up thinking these things.”