The following happened to us about a month ago. We left Assisi, driving south to the Amalfi Coast. At Terni, we missed our road connection. Turning into a large parking lot to turn around, suddenly a dark blue BMW with four men inside approached. One of the men motioned for us to pull over. They all had the same light blue shirts and looked very official.

I pulled over and immediently one of the men came up to the passenger side and asked my friend to see his passport. He mentioned a bogus money affair at the toll booth on the autostrada and demanded to see our money. My friend had his money with his passport so it was easy for the man to examine the money--which he did, fanning it out. We were suspicious, but the man looked very official and had an Italian badge of some sort on his belt.

I watched very closely as he examined the money and proclaimed that it all was OK. He then came to my side of the car and asked to see my money. All I had was about 50 Euros which he again said was OK.

He then asked our wives who truthfully said that they had no money with them.

All this took place in rapid-fire succession--the whole thing not taking more than a couple of minutes. Another of the men waved us on.

My friend counted his money. Over $500 was missing!! The hand is quicker than the eye--while the man was "examining" the money, somehow he extracted the missing bills. And all the time, I was watching very closely.

We were down the road when we discovered the theft, so we didn't go back and report this to the authorities (plus we had to get to our Amalfi hotel before dark).

Hindsight--we should have demanded to see their credentials before allowing the examination. But it all happened so quickly--the car and the men looked very official--and we were not sure what would have happened if we had resisted the demands.

It was a very smooth and well-planned operation. I plan to contact the Italian authorities and relate what happened.

Jinx Hoover

What a rotten thing to happen. Four blokes would be rather intimidating I'd imagine.

Thanks for the heads up.

If there were 4 of you in the car. someone should've observed the discription of the theifs, the make and model of the car, and possibly some of the plate #. Then instead of worrying about the hotel, gone to the nearest police station with some kind of discription in hopes of proventing the same to happen to another person. Commen sense needed to be put in place here. Why didn't you go foward to the closest town and report it there?

virgi
As jinx clearly stated, hindsight is clearly 20/20.
Criticising after the fact is as a mole.

Hey jinx, I'm so sorry that happened!! I can see how that was a scary situation and thanks for warning us about it.

I've met jinx and his lovely wife at a GTG and they are very sensible people. But a scam like this happens to even the wisest of tourists.

What a nasty scam, jinx. But I think even if you'd asked to see their credentials, they would have handed you something official-looking anyway, so how would you know it wasn't real? Just be thankful it was only money and nobody got hurt.

Once I told them that I pay all of my road tolls in Europe with a Visa card, they would probably cut my throat and throw me in the bushes.

Thanks for the heads up, Jinx.

My condolences.

A good reminder not to carry large amounts of cash.

Carry lots of cash if you need to, but don't show it to anyone. There's no reason why even genuine police should need to look at your money.

Just and FYI so you're prepared - Random police checks are VERY common in Italy - they will put up a road block or just be parked at the side of the road and flag you down...I have had this happen many, many times...they need to see your ID and drivers liscense...but have NEVER, ever, ever, asked to "see" any money.