Bologna, September 10, 2026 – During the night they attempted a major heist trying to rob the luxury watch store of Davide Pedretti, on via D’Azeglio, just steps from Piazza Maggiore. But the ‘hole gang’ – as the victim has already nicknamed them – did not succeed. They emerged at midnight in the adjacent store, ‘Filodoro’, coming through the sewers, then started to ‘pickaxe’ the load-bearing wall trying to break through to enter Pedretti’s store but after about 40 minutes they were forced to flee empty-handed, probably fearing they had triggered the alarm.
The arrival of the carabinieri and the reconstruction of the failed heist
The carabinieri arrived, and they are now trying to reconstruct the path taken by the thieves in the sewers, especially to understand exactly where they started from. At the scene, the thieves left a spray bottle, a hammer, and a lock pick. “According to the carabinieri’s reconstruction – says Davide Pedretti – while they were pickaxing the wall to access my store, they must have ‘accidentally’ struck a blow and hit the drywall. Fearing they had triggered the alarm, they fled. Fortunately, the store is super secure with a state-of-the-art system including wall, floor, and position detectors, and also above the safes. If the alarm goes off, private security arrives in an instant.”
Pedretti: “I, as an entrepreneur, cannot be afraid to work”
The theft did not succeed, but the anger of having to deal with all this remains. “I, as an entrepreneur, cannot be afraid to work – comments Pedretti –. We have an exceptional protection system, but it is never enough, when I see that abroad – in Dubai, for example – from a security point of view it is a paradise, a store with stock ten times larger than mine leaves the door open. Here instead I have to have triple bulletproof glass and a security guard with a gun. The situation in Bologna – and in the rest of the country – has worsened. Something should be done, penalties really need to be toughened. Nowadays being a jeweler has become very difficult, in some ways it’s a nightmare.” Yesterday the Carabinieri spent a long time in the two damaged stores. “A special thanks to the carabinieri, always present,” Pedretti’s words.
The manager of Filodoro: “When I arrived at the store I saw the hole and I was scared”
The manager of Filodoro, Giulia Casula, does not hide her bitterness, starting from the moment of discovery: “When I arrived at the store (yesterday morning, ed.) I saw the hole and I was scared. It was not a good start to the day, so to speak. Not to mention the inconveniences that followed. We are on the shopping street, right in the center, certainly we did not expect to face something like this on an ordinary Wednesday.” “We have to do something soon,” said Pierluigi Sforza (Federpreziosi), who recently commented on the major theft (at least 300,000 euros loot) at the Giacobazzi jewelry store on via San Felice by a gang of three professionals in Carlino.
