CEGLIE MESSAPICA/OSTUNI – Two thefts of three religious statues perpetrated in the night between last Monday and Tuesday, 16 and 17 December, in the areas of Ceglie Messapica and Ostuni.
The first shot took place around 1.20 am against a private home near the Ceglie cemetery. The video surveillance cameras installed on site immortalized two men getting out of a dark car.
One of the two subjects, of thin build and with his face covered by a hood and hat with visor, first climbed over a low wall that delimits the house and then tore the sculpture from the pedestal on which it was positioned. Meanwhile, his accomplice was waiting for him leaning on the wall, before both quickly walking away, with the religious depiction in his hands.
The discovery of the theft was a hard blow for the owner, who, having recovered from a terrible illness, has long been linked with devotion to the figure of Saint Pio of Pietralcina. An episode like many others one might think, but some more doubts arose following what happened the same night a few kilometers away.
The second act of the story, in fact, was recorded in the Ostuni area, between the rural area of the White City and that of Cisternino. Here, in a sort of common area overlooked by several homes, two of the three statues present depicting the Madonna and Jesus have disappeared. In this case, however, those responsible left the statue of Padre Pio in its place. A detail, the latter, which still fuels doubts as to whether the matrix could be the same.
Alerted by two complaints, accompanied by videos and testimonies, the Carabinieri from the Ceglie Messapica and Ostuni stations investigated the incidents respectively.
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