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A gang of six suspected robbers in their 60s and 70s, famed in Rome’s criminal underground for carrying out a string of armed robberies at city post offices, has been apprehended by Italian police.

Police apprehended the gang’s leader, 70-year-old Italo “the German” De Witt, who became famous in the mid-1990s after a ‘sophisticated’ bank heist near the Spanish Steps, as well as his 75-year-old lookout.

A 68-year-old accomplice was also apprehended as well as their 66-year-old ‘key-guy’, who was responsible for making backdoor keys to their targetted post offices. At some of the sites, two masons in their early 50s drilled holes in the walls, working throughout the night or at weekends to facilitate the thieves’ access.

The geriatric gang is accused of taking about R4.1 million from a San Giovanni post office in May last year, after two of its members, armed with pistols, entered through the rear entrance and intimidated an employee loading the ATM.

According to The Guardian, another planned robbery was scuppered because the 66-year-old gang member was having ‘incontinence issues’ and needed an operation on his prostate. Their criminal spree, which were all caught on camera, came to an end after the failed burglary of a post office in the Don Bosco area. The six were arrested on armed robbery charges.

The alleged thieves are said to be “old acquaintances” of the police in the Italian capital’s criminal underworld. In 1995, an ‘impeccably dressed’ De Witt held 15 bank employees hostage after entering a Credito Italiano branch during their lunch break with a set of cloned keys and threatening them at gunpoint. He walked away with 210 million lira (R2.1 million).

See, retirement can be fun.

[source:guardian]