A British holidaymaker who tried to leave Pompeii with pilfered stones is facing a fine – but will avoid the ‘curse’ of the ruined city thanks to Italian police.
The 51-year-old Scottish man was held by officers on the way out of the buried Roman settlement and was found with six fragments of stolen stone.
The man was seemingly not aware that previous light-fingered tourists who have left Pompeii with stolen objects have ended up repenting years later, claiming their thievery has brought them woeful misfortune.
According to The Times, a police spokesman said: ‘This week we caught a Scotsman before he could get away but we may have saved him from the curse.’
The man, who was not named by police, was allegedly seen by his tour guide putting loose stones into his rucksack as he toured the city, which was buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD79.
The alleged thief could now face a trial that could lead to fine of up to €1,500 or even a prison sentence if it is not their first offence.
A British holidaymaker who tried to leave Pompeii with pilfered stones is facing a fine – but will avoid the ‘curse’ of the ruined city thanks to Italian police. Above: An officer examines the stolen objects
The 51-year-old Scottish man was held by officers on the way out of the buried Roman settlement and was found with six fragments of stolen stone
The guide reported him and police were then informed.
The police spokesman added: ‘He said he had no idea it was forbidden to remove artefacts from Pompeii,’ said the officer.
‘He was trying to get out of trouble but it did not work.’
It comes after an American tourist who pilfered pumice stones from Pompeii revealed she got divorced and developed breast cancer.
At the start of last year, Deb, from Pennsylvania, told the Daily Mail how she went to Pompeii during a holiday to southern Italy in 2011 and while there she took two stones from the archaeological site.
But within eight years of returning home she fell ill and her marriage collapsed, so she decided to return the stones in 2020.
It comes after an American tourist who pilfered pumice stones from Pompeii revealed she got divorced and developed breast cancer. She returned the stones with a grovelling apology letter
She said: ‘When I got back from Italy not too long after that I ended up getting divorced and then a year later had Stage 3 breast cancer.’
When she returned the stones, she included a letter saying: ‘I didn’t know about the curse’.
She added: ‘Please accept my apology and these pieces.’
In 2020, a Canadian woman, identified only as Nicole, sent a package containing two mosaic tiles, parts of an amphora and a piece of ceramics she had pilfered from Pompeii to a travel agent in the Italian city.
Pompeii was buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79
Nicole, who had stolen the artefacts in 2005, said she was returning them after they had given her 15 years of bad luck.
She wrote a letter of confession in which she detailed her theft and her subsequent run of misfortune, including two cases of breast cancer and financial hardship.
Nicole wrote: ‘Please, take them back, they bring bad luck.’
She said she took the artefacts because she wanted to own a piece of history that no one else had, but they had ‘so much negative energy… linked to that land of destruction’.
And in 2015, an English woman returned a piece of mosaic that her parents had taken from Pompeii in the 1970s.
She claimed the object had brought her years of misfortune.
