Venice police praise Briton who handed in bag full of cash

ITALIANS yesterday praised a British holidaymaker who handed over to Venice police a bag she found on the ground that contained €2,700 (£2,400).

The unnamed 67-year-old Londoner, identified by police only by the initials T.C.S. because she preferred her selfless act to remain anonymous, told Venetian officers that she made the gesture in part because of her respect for European police forces battling terrorism “like my son”.

“I have a lot of time for European police forces, my son is also a police officer,” Corriere della Sera newspaper quoted her as saying.

She stumbled upon the bag lying on the ground on Saturday evening in one of the narrow alleyways that criss-cross the city alongside its network of canals.

“Instead of putting it in her pocket, the next morning she went determinedly to the nearest police station and handed in the money,” the newspaper said.

“It was the only thing I could do,” it quoted her as saying.

Venice was the final stop on a threecity tour of the peninsula for the woman, which previously took her to Naples and Rome.

The incident and kind words from a foreign admirer were welcome news for Italian police who have come under criticism for what observers say has been a lack of discipline and violent behaviour toward the public in recent weeks.

The Carabinieri paramilitary police force last weekend made a formal apology to two young American students who were allegedly raped in their apartment building by two rogue Carabinieri, reported to be in uniform, who offered them a lift home from a nightclub in the Tuscan capital of Florence in the early hours of Sept 7.