Overview
- Thieves place a 50‑euro note under a windshield wiper or create a fake tire noise with a plastic bottle to make drivers step out and check the disturbance.
- Once a driver leaves the car, accomplices open doors to steal handbags, phones and wallets or, if the engine is running, take the vehicle itself.
- Reports that surfaced Monday and Tuesday in Italian and German outlets drew on local social posts and regional press to flag a cluster of incidents concentrated in north Rome parking lots.
- Journalists and safety experts advise not exiting an unlocked car to pick up money, locking doors, keeping keys in hand, driving a short distance to check the note, and calling police instead of confronting suspects.
- The scam echoes a wider pattern of distraction thefts aimed at shoppers and tourists and has raised local alarm that could change how people use supermarket and public parking areas.